


Works in Progress

by iliketowriteaboutklaine (rebeldawgspirategirl)



Category: Glee
Genre: Dalton Academy, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage, Married Life, NYADA, NYU - Freeform, Teaching, Therapy, William McKinley High School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-12 02:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7081891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebeldawgspirategirl/pseuds/iliketowriteaboutklaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After saying their vows in November, follow Kurt and Blaine through the adventure that is their first year married.  Follow them through the ups and downs that accompany them from a fight to Blaine being accepted into NYU to moving back to New York and everything in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/145379400310/works-in-progress-chapter-1

Provincetown had been a great idea. Kurt and Blaine would give Sue that much credit. The rented a different house on the beach for the week instead of the one Sue tried to provide them with (there was something fishy about that lady knowing a little bit too much about them), but they were really glad that they ended up going to Provincetown for their honeymoon. 

When they weren’t preoccupied at the beach house, Kurt and Blaine visited museums and the lighthouse. They ate at local restaurants and visited the winery. They thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere in Provincetown, like getting to walk down the street hand-in-hand with no one batting an eye. Being back in Ohio for so long, they had forgotten what it was like to be out in public without judgment. 

Kurt and Blaine were walking down the beach one evening as the sunset, joking about one day retiring to Provincetown because they liked it so much. It was that conversation that sparked a conversation about their current living arrangements. Before the wedding, Blaine was moving back in with his mother and Kurt was still living with his father. 

“Blaine,” Kurt said as he stopped at the edge of the water and turned to admire the sunset. 

“Hmm?” Blaine responded, looking out towards the horizon himself and taking in the oranges, reds, and pinks that illuminated the sky.

“Where are we going to live?”

Blaine blinked his eyes, but remained silent for a moment or so. He hadn’t taken living arrangements into consideration. They were married. Of course they were going to live together. “I don’t have the apartment anymore.”

“I know,” Kurt said chuckling. “That’s why I’m asking.”

“Well,” Blaine began. “Do you have any ideas?”

“Ideally, we’d find our own apartment to last us the remainder of our time in Lima.”

“But until we can do that, we’d have to stay with one of our parents’ houses.”

Kurt nodded. “Do you want to stay at your house?”

“Oh God no,” Blaine said, shaking his head. Many memories of his mother walking in on him or them flooded his brain. He could not take that now that he was married. “With my mother’s penchant for ignoring a closed door? Nope. The last thing I want is my mother walking in on us having sex again.”

Kurt blushed at the memories of the multiple times that Pam had walked in on them. “At least we were under the blanket the last time,” he said, chuckling. “But I get your point. I don’t want that either.”

“We could stay at Burt and Carole’s house,” Blaine suggested.

“I guess we’re going to have to,” Kurt sighed. “We’ll have to keep it down. My bedroom is right down the hallway from them.”

Blaine laughed. “You say that like we didn’t get enough practice of that to perfect the art of remaining quiet while we were in high school.”

“True,” Kurt agreed as he joined Blaine in laughing. “I guess we’ll stay at my house until we can find our own apartment.”

Kurt and Blaine turned back in the direction of their beach house and began the trek back to the house since the sun had almost set and they forgot to bring flashlights with them on their walk. 

“We’ll look for apartments when we get back,” Blaine said. “That’s the best way to look for a place there. Trust me. With that last apartment, Dave and I had looked around on the internet for one. All the ones we thought we liked, we didn’t. The apartment we had wasn’t one of the ones we found on the internet.”

Kurt tried not to cringe at the idea of his husband dating Dave Karofsky. He honestly tried, but Blaine saw the look of discomfort on Kurt’s face and frowned. 

“Sorry, babe,” he said, knowing what he had said to cause Kurt the discomfort.

Kurt sighed. “No, it’s okay, Blaine. But can we please refrain from talking about your ex while we’re on our honeymoon?”

Blaine laughed and nodded. “Sure.”

They walked up the few steps to the door of their beach house. Blaine pulled out their key and unlocked the door, only to hear his cell phone blaring as soon as the door was open. Blaine walked over to the kitchen table and picked up his cell phone, noticing that the dean from Dalton Academy was calling him. 

“It’s the dean,” Blaine told Kurt as he tapped the screen on his phone to answer the call. “I have to take this.”

Blaine was undoubtedly concerned when he saw the dean’s number on the screen. The dean knew that Blaine was currently on his honeymoon and had promised Blaine that he wouldn’t call unless it was important. With his anxiety rising, Blaine answered the phone. 

“Dean Andrews?” Blaine said, trying to keep his nerves under control. “What’s up?”

Blaine heard the man on the other side of the line sigh. “I’m so sorry to interrupt your honeymoon,” Dean Andrews began, “but we’ve had a fire at Dalton.”

“Is everyone okay?” Blaine asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed. 

“Everyone is thankfully okay,” the dean answered. “But there’s no easy way to say this, Blaine. Dalton burned to the ground.”

“What’s going to happen?” Blaine forced himself to say. He couldn’t believe it. The place that saved him, that saved Kurt, that began their whole story together was gone. 

“Everyone’s going to have to find new schools and jobs,” the dean responded remorsefully. 

“What about the Warblers?” 

“A couple of them may transfer separately from the group, but the group as a whole wants to remain together. We’re hoping that maybe you can help with that.”

Blaine nodded before remembering that he was talking on the phone. “Of course. Um. Dean Andrews, I don’t mean to sound heartless,”

“But what about your paycheck?” the dean interrupted him. “We will be able to pay you for the remainder of 2014.”

“But that’s only December,” Blaine said as it hit him that he had lost his job.

“I’m sorry, Blaine.”

While Blaine was on the phone, Kurt stood off to the side watching Blaine’s reaction to whatever was being said and came to the conclusion that something bad had happened and that they probably needed to get back to Lima sooner rather than later. He pulled up an airline’s website on his phone and booked them the tickets they needed to get back to Lima that night. Then he checked on the time that the rental agency closed so that they could return the key to the house before they left. By the time that Blaine got off the phone, Kurt had contacted not only the airline and the rental agency, but had also sent off a text to his father and began packing their clothes and souvenirs. 

“What happened?” Kurt asked as he folded up one of Blaine’s shirts and put it in the suitcase.

Blaine grabbed one of the shirts off the pile of clothes and started to help pack. “There was a fire at Dalton. School burned to the ground.”

Kurt looked up at Blaine to find him pale and shaking. “Is everyone okay?” 

“Yeah. Everyone got out.”

“Are you okay?” 

Blaine stood silently for a few seconds before his façade crumbled. The unshed tears that had been pooling in his eyes were now streaming down his face. The shirt that he had just folded he was now clutching as if his life depended on it. “No,” he said, voice thick with emotion. “Everything’s gone. The senior commons. The grounds. The classrooms. The staircase. My job. It’s all gone.”

Kurt put down the pair of pants that he had been folding and walked around the end of the bed to embrace his distraught husband. “We’re going home,” Kurt whispered. 

Blaine didn’t even want to argue with Kurt. He just nodded.

Kurt took the shirt from Blaine and finished packing quickly. They dropped off the key on the way to the airport.

They were fairly silent during their journey back to Lima. They clutched each other’s hand the entire time, refusing to let go of the other in fear of one of them breaking down. Dalton meant so much to both of them, and the thought of it being gone not only affected Blaine, but it affected Kurt as well. The place they met and fell in love was gone. No matter what happened, even if they rebuilt the school, it wouldn’t be the same Dalton Academy.

The plane landed in Columbus late that night. By the time they arrived, Kurt and Blaine were exhausted. They shuffled over to baggage claim and grabbed their suitcases before sleepily walking over to the arrivals lounge to find Burt. As soon as they found him, Burt hugged both boys tightly before taking the bags Blaine had been carrying since Blaine looked like he was seconds away from passing out. Burt led them to the car and loaded their bags into the trunk while Kurt and Blaine climbed into the backseat and almost immediately dozed off.

The ride back to the house was silent since the young men in the backseat were asleep. When they arrived, Burt unloaded their bags and took them up to Kurt’s room before waking up Kurt and Blaine. The newlyweds shuffled up the stairs and sleepily changed into pajamas before falling into bed and promptly falling to sleep.

Around eleven-thirty, the boys awoke and trudged down the stairs to find two Subway sandwiches waiting for them. They graciously accepted the sandwiches and sat down at the table with Carole, who was finishing up a sandwich of her own. 

“So boys,” she said cheerily in an effort to perk up her houseguests. “What do you think we should eat for Friday night dinner tonight?” 

Blaine shrugged while Kurt answered. “What about lasagna? We had this really good lasagna at one of the restaurants in Provincetown, and I found this recipe that I think is pretty close to the same thing.”

“That sound great!” Carole agreed. “How was Provincetown?”

“Oh it was great! I’ll have to show you some of the pictures later. We stayed in this house right on the beach, and we got to see so much around the town.”

“I bet Pam would love to see those pictures too,” Carole said, directing her attention to Blaine. “Why don’t you go invite your mom to dinner tonight?”

While Blaine left the room to call his mother, Carole returned to talking to Kurt, but this time about Blaine and the events that had happened. “He okay?”

Kurt sighed. “He will be. He’s pretty much just in shock right now. Once that wears off, I’m pretty sure he’ll be just fine. It’s just that Dalton meant so much to him and it was his paycheck too. He’s just lost all of that.”

Carole nodded, but when she saw Blaine walking down the hall back in the direction of the kitchen, she changed the subject. “So tell me about Provincetown.”

That night, Pam arrived for dinner and the family all sat down to eat the delicious lasagna prepared by Kurt. Blaine, who had become more talkative as the day went on, and Kurt told stories of things that happened in Provincetown while they were there, and talked about how much they were enjoying married life so far. 

After dinner, they all retreated into the living room after a request from not only Carole, but also Pam to see pictures from the wedding and from the honeymoon. Kurt had never been more gratefully for the fact that his parents still kept their Wii gaming system all these years, and popped the memory card out of the camera that was sitting on the end table and into the memory card slot on the Wii console. The memory card had not only contained pictures from Provincetown, but also from the wedding, and from different perspectives since the camera had been passed around to other people throughout the night.

Someone had caught a really sweet picture of Kurt and Blaine during their first dance where they were leaning their foreheads against each other and smiling brightly at each other. Kurt and Blaine smiled at the picture while everyone else began making comments about it. 

“That’s a beautiful picture, you guys,” Pam said. 

Kurt laughed. “I’m just glad we got a first dance since we basically crashed someone else’s wedding. Santana and Brittany really planned everything for us down to playing Come What May.”

After the wedding pictures, which included them walking out behind Santana and Brittany in a pathway lit by sparklers, they were on the pictures of Provincetown during their honeymoon. There were a lot of pictures of the beach since the house they were staying in was directly on the beach. Those pictures included sunrise and sunset over the ocean. They had taken pictures of the pier and other things around the town that they had found interesting. There were several pictures of them that kind people around the town had offered to take for them, which their families had thought were the best pictures.

“That’s a great picture of you guys,” Carole said when they had reached a picture of Kurt and Blaine taken on the pier with a shot of the water behind them.

“That was actually the first day we were there. There was an older couple there who saw us standing on the pier and taking pictures and asked if we wanted them to take a picture of us,” Blaine said. “We said sure. When they handed us back our camera, they asked what brought us to Provincetown. We told them we were there on our honeymoon, and they started telling us different things to do. Turns out, they live there.”

“They were really nice,” Kurt told them. “We met them for dinner at the Lobster Pot one evening.”

They flipped through the remaining pictures, pausing between pictures so others could make comments and so they could tell stories. When they reached the end of the pictures, Pam stood. 

“I really wish I could stay longer, boys,” she said, hugging Blaine and then Kurt as they stood up. “But I have to work early in the morning. It was really good getting to see you boys. I’m glad you guys had fun on your honeymoon and I’m glad your back home.”

“Love you, Mom,” Blaine said as he and Kurt walked her to the door.

“Love you, too, Blainey,” she responded. “And you too, Kurt.”

Kurt smiled at his mother-in-law. “Love you, too, Pam.”

“I’ll see you boys around.”

With Pam in her car and pulling out of the driveway, Kurt and Blaine shut the door and returned to Burt and Carole’s living room to find Carole cleaning up. Without saying a word, Blaine jumped in to help her clean up after dinner and desert, leaving Burt and Kurt alone for a few moments.

“Dad, can I talk to you about something?” Kurt said, sitting down on the side of the couch closest to his father.

Burt, who had changed from the pictures on the Wii to a basketball game, picked up the remote to mute the television. “What’s up?”

“So, there’s something that Blaine and I didn’t think of before we got married.”

“Kid, I hope you aren’t having second thoughts about this, because it’s a little late.”

Kurt looked at his father with wide eyes and began shaking his head. “No. No second thoughts at all. That’s not it. We just don’t have a clue about where we’re going to live. Blaine doesn’t have his apartment anymore, and we haven’t looked around at apartments here yet, plus, Blaine’s income is gone since Dalton burned. I mean, I may have an idea or two about that, but I don’t want to talk to him about it until I know it will work. We don’t really want to stay with Pam because she has a tendency to walk into rooms even when the door is closed,” Kurt said with a red face.

“You boys can stay here,” Burt said, interrupting Kurt’s rant. “You two are welcome to stay here as long as you need to. Just keep it down. I don’t want to hear you two at night when I’m trying to sleep.”

“Of course,” Kurt agreed. 

“And I’ll respect the closed door as well.”

Kurt laughed. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem, kid. Your mom and I stayed with her parents right after we got married while we were waiting for our first apartment. So I have no issues with you guys staying here.”

Just then, Blaine and Carole reentered the living room. Blaine sat down on the couch next to Kurt while Burt stood up.

“Well, boys,” Burt said, tossing the remote over to the young couple on the couch. “We’re going to go on to bed. We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Good night,” Blaine and Kurt said in unison as Burt and Carole climbed the stairs towards their room.

Kurt grabbed the remote and began searching through the guide until he found a movie that he knew he and Blaine both liked. They cuddled up on the couch together and watched the beginning of the movie. After about twenty minutes, Blaine shifted and looked at Kurt.

“Kurt?” he said softly with a wavering voice.

Kurt turned down the volume on the television and looked over at Blaine concerned. “What’s wrong, Blaine?”

“What am I going to do?”

“What do you mean what are you going to do?”

Blaine composed himself so that he could speak with a steady voice. “I have no job. My students need a place to go. Dalton Academy is gone. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.”

Kurt pulled Blaine close to him. “We’ll figure it out together. I have a couple of ideas, but I want to see if they’ll work before I tell you. Do you trust me with this?”

Blaine nodded. “Your income is next to nothing. How are we supposed to get an apartment or any of that?”

Kurt sighed. “You just need to trust me. Everything will all work out. I promise you that. And I promise that you don’t have to figure this out on your own anymore. I’ll be right there with you no matter what. I promise.”

Blaine sniffled as everything that had been going through his head since he got the call about Dalton was finally out in the open. That along with Kurt’s promise overwhelmed Blaine. He leaned into Kurt’s side and breathed to calm himself down just like his therapist had taught him. They returned to watching their movie after their short, yet emotional conversation. When the credits began to roll, Kurt switched off the television and the newlywed couple retreated to Kurt’s bedroom, where they promptly fell asleep. Just as they fell asleep, Kurt wondered what the next few weeks, year, and the rest of their lives held in store for them. Whatever it was, Kurt was sure that, with Blaine, it was going to be great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/145379400310/works-in-progress-chapter-1


	2. Rising Above Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt and Blaine go back to see Dalton, and the glee clubs merge.

Blaine woke the next morning refreshed and determined. Friday night had been an emotionally exhausting night since he had voiced his fears to Kurt about his job and his students. Saturday morning, Blaine was assured that whatever Kurt had in mind would work and all he had to do was trust that Kurt knew what he was doing. 

Still, Blaine was having trouble grasping the fact that Dalton was truly gone. Ever since that phone call, Blaine had been caught in a state of disbelief. He knew what he needed to do to come to terms with it. He just had to wait for Kurt to wake up.

Blaine silently got out of bed careful as to not wake Kurt. He walked down the stairs to find Carole in the kitchen fixing breakfast. 

“Anything I can help you with?” he asked as Carole placed the bacon on a pan. 

“You can fix the pancake batter, if you want,” Carole said, pointing to a cabinet that housed the Bisquick mix. 

Blaine grabbed the box from the cabinet and followed the instructions written on the box to fix the pancakes, adding some blueberries to the batter because he knew that he and Kurt liked it.

“Ooh,” Carole said, noting the addition of blueberries as Blaine began to pour the batter into the pan. “Blueberries. Good idea.” 

A few minutes later, Kurt, who had been awaked by the smell of blueberry pancakes and bacon, walked into the kitchen to join his husband and stepmother. “Smells good down here.”

“It’ll be ready in just a few minutes,” Carole told him. “Blaine just finished the pancakes. We’re just waiting on the bacon.”

Blaine walked over towards Kurt with open arms. Kurt immediately opened his arms to welcome Blaine into his arms. 

“Morning, babe,” Kurt said just loud enough for Blaine to hear.

“Good morning,” Blaine responded, pulling back from the hug and placing a quick kiss on Kurt’s cheek before turning back towards the kitchen cabinets and grabbing plates for everyone. 

Kurt could tell that Blaine was still trying to figure out something in his head. “You okay?”

Blaine shrugged. “I will be.”

Burt joined them as soon as the bacon was done and they all sat down to eat breakfast. Burt and Carole discussed the things that they needed to do for work while everyone devoured the bacon and the blueberry pancakes. 

Then, Burt turned towards the young couple at the table. “So what are you boys doing today?”

Right as Kurt was about to answer with an “I don’t know,” Blaine looked to Kurt and said, “Can we go see Dalton?”

Kurt blinked his eyes and looked at Blaine as if he had suddenly gone crazy. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Kurt was concerned, and rightly so. Blaine had been struggling with the loss of Dalton Academy. He wasn’t sure that going to see Dalton was the greatest idea.

Blaine knew that he needed to see it to believe that it was truly gone. “Yes,” he said determinedly. “Part of me can’t really believe that the fire really happened. I need to go see it. Dalton was a part of me. It was a part of us. It saved me and it gave me you. It helped me get back on my feet when I moved back here. I need to see that it’s really gone, or I’m going to be stuck not believing it’s gone.”

“Okay,” Kurt said as he reached over the table for Blaine’s hand. “We’ll go.”

A couple hours later, Kurt and Blaine were driving up to what was left of Dalton Academy. As Kurt pulled into a parking spot, they could see what was left of the building. The bricks were still there, but they were covered in ashes. They could tell that everything on the inside was completely gone before they even got out of the car. 

“Are you sure you’re ready to see it, Blaine?” Kurt asked when he noticed that Blaine was noticeably pale. “Because if you aren’t, we can leave right now. Go back to Lima or hang out around Westerville or whatever.”

“No,” Blaine forced himself to say. “I need to do this.”

They walked up as close as they could to the building and looked around. They could see that everything in the senior commons was gone, as well as the staircase they met on crumbled to the ground. They walked around grasping each other’s hand tightly as they surveyed the destruction to the building that meant so much to both of them, but especially Blaine. 

As they were walking around, they saw a group of young men approaching them. Blaine recognized them as his students, and he ran forward to greet them. 

“Hey guys,” Blaine said.

“Hi, Mr. Anderson,” one of the sophomore members of the Warblers said. “Did you have a nice honeymoon?”

“It was great, but I’m just so glad that you guys are safe.”

“It was frightening,” Trevor, one of the senior Warblers, said from the back of the group. “One minute we were having a Warblers’ night over in the dorm, and the next minute the fire alarms are going off and we’re all running outside to find the school engulfed in flames.”

“The dorms are all okay, which is why some of us are still here until arrangements are made for us, but,” one of the junior Warblers said as he motioned towards the main building.

“We have something for you, though, Mr. Anderson,” Trevor said, making his way through the group with an object in his hands. “It’s one of the only things that made it through the fire.” In Trevor’s hands was a navy blue Dalton blazer with Blaine’s name written on the tag. “It’s a little singed, but it’s mostly fine. We cleaned off the soot and ashes that were on it, but we thought you might want it back.” 

Blaine accepted the blazer with tears in his eyes. “Thank you, guys. This means a lot to me.”

“Mr. Anderson,” James, one of the freshmen in the group, said quietly, getting Blaine’s attention. “They told us you would find some place for us to go so that we could remain as a group. Have you figured that out yet?”

Blaine sighed. “Not yet, James.”

Just then, Kurt stepped up to Blaine’s side. He had kind of hung back during the beginning of the conversation since it was between Blaine and his students, but he might hold the answer to the Warblers’ predicament, and wanted to at least start to put aside their fears and concerns. 

“I might be able to help with that,” Kurt said, causing Blaine to look at him confusedly. Kurt laughed at Blaine’s look and whispered to Blaine, “Just trust me.”

“Really, Mr. Hummel?” James asked, hopeful.

“I don’t know anything for sure yet. I have to make a phone call or two, but I have an idea,” Kurt answered. “You guys just have to bear with me on this one.”

“Of course, Mr. Hummel,” James said. 

“Well, if it isn’t Dalton’s legendary couple,” a familiar voice said from behind Kurt and Blaine.

“Wes!” Kurt and Blaine both said as they turned around to face their old friend.

“What are you doing here?” Blaine asked him, still surprised by his arrival.

Wes chuckled. “Dean Andrews called me. My family is one of Dalton’s main supporters, and he asked me about my opinions on rebuilding the school, which of course I immediately suggested they do. I told them I’d talk to my dad and grandfather about helping fund the project as well. What’s this I heard about you two getting married?”

“We did. Surprisingly. Crashed our friends’ wedding and everything,” Kurt said laughing.

“You’ll have to show me pictures sometime,” Wes said. “I wish I could hang around longer, but I told Dean Andrews I’d head immediately for my dad’s office so I really should get going.”

“It was great seeing you!” Blaine said, walking up to his old friend and giving him a one-arm hug.

“It was great seeing you guys too,” Wes responded, “despite the unfortunate circumstances.”

Not long after Wes left, Kurt and Blaine left as well. They stopped for lunch on the way home, and as soon as they arrived back at Burt and Carole’s house, Kurt told Blaine that he had to go make a quick phone call. So Blaine sat down in the living room and turned on the television while Kurt stepped into the backyard to make a phone call to someone who Kurt hoped would hold the answer for the Warblers and Blaine.

“Hey, Kurt!” Mr. Schue said as he answered the phone. “What can I do for you?”

“Hey, Mr. Schue. Blaine’s looking for a new school to house the Warblers, and I was wondering if we could merge the two glee clubs and have the Warblers at McKinley?”

“That’s do-able,” Mr. Schue answered. “We can definitely do that. There might be some conflict at first, but we’ll work through it.”

Kurt sighed in relief. One problem solved, one more to go. “One more thing.”

“What is it Kurt?” 

“With Dalton no longer operating, Blaine’s out of a job. Do you think Blaine could get on at McKinley with you, me, and Rachel?”

“Um. I can see what I can do. I’m sure he can at least get minimum wage or something.”

Kurt sighed in relief. “Thank you, Mr. Schue.”

“See you, Monday, Kurt!”

Kurt hung up the phone and put his cell back in his pocket before walking back inside. He found Blaine in the living room watching Cake Wars, and plopped down on the sofa next to Blaine. 

“I’ve got good news,” Kurt said, drawing Blaine’s attention away from the television.

Blaine smiled at his husband. “What is this good news?” 

“I have a place for you and the Warblers.”

“You do?” Blaine said, perking up and becoming hopeful.

“Yep. William McKinley High School. I just got off the phone with Mr. Schue. He can merge the glee clubs together and possibly get you on the payroll there. All you have to do is get your group together and be there Monday. You’ll probably spend the beginning of the day helping all of the Warblers get transferred, and then you guys will join us.”

“That’s great!” Blaine said, leaping from his spot on the couch into Kurt’s arms, tightly hugging him to the point that Kurt “Thank you so much!” 

Monday morning came, and with that came telling the two former rival clubs that they were going to become one group by the end of the day. Blaine met with the Warblers outside of McKinley while Kurt got the group together in the choir room before they day started. 

“Mr. Anderson, why did you have all of us meet you here?” one of the Warblers asked.

Blaine took a deep breath. “Because this is where I could find a job for me and a place for you. You guys are joining the New Directions and enrolling in McKinley. We’ll spend the morning getting you guys all transferred here, and we’ll join the New Directions for glee club practice this afternoon. You have two glee practices here, one during school in place of study hall and one after school. Is everyone okay with this?”

“A public school? Are you sure this is the best place you could find for us?” one of the richer students asked.

Blaine sighed. “There is nothing wrong with public school. I graduated from here. And it was the most practical solution my husband and I could think of. Most of you are from right around this area anyway. So let’s go in.”

Meanwhile in the choir room, Kurt was facing some of the same resistant attitude from his own students. 

“What do you mean the prep school is joining us?” Kitty asked. “They’re just a bunch of rich smart asses.”

“They don’t even know how to dance,” Spencer complained.

“Oh like you know how to dance,” Madison snapped, rolling her eyes.

“Guys!” Kurt shouted, getting the group’s attention. “Just try to get along with them. They just lost their school. Imagine if it was McKinley that burned down. Try to put yourself into their shoes.”

That afternoon had been a glee practice full of tension from both glee clubs. Both the Warblers and the New Directions were unsure about the whole plan. Jane was sending glares in the direction of the Warblers, which didn’t go unnoticed by Blaine, but he decided to see if it would just blow over.

Unfortunately, it only took a day before everything blew up between the two glee clubs. After words had been exchanged between the two groups, Kurt and Blaine separated them in order to talk to them. While Kurt gave his glee club a lecture on sympathy and being helpful, Blaine found himself giving the Warblers a lecture on compromise.

“Look guys, I’ll see what I can do,” Blaine said after calming down his group since the moment they got into an empty classroom, they all crowded him and started complaining about having to change. “I will try my best, but you guys have got to work with me here. I loved Dalton. As much if not more than you guys. That place saved me more than once. But you guys have to accept the fact that it’s gone. I know how much that blazer means to you guys. But Mr. Schue is right. You’re at McKinley now. And you’re part of the New Directions now. You guys cannot continue to be two separate teams. You’re one team. You need to learn how to compromise and work together.” Blaine sighed, remembering what Jane had said on the stage. “And you guys have hurt a member of our team in the past. And I was really disappointed in you guys. Dalton Academy educates gentlemen, and you guys were not gentlemen towards Jane. I’m going to bring her in here, and you guys better think of a genuine apology towards her while I go get her.”

With that, Blaine left the room and walked down to the choir room, asking for Jane. The girl slowly rose from her seat and walked towards Blaine. “You needed me, Mr. Anderson?” 

“Yeah. I noticed there’s still some bad blood between you and the Warblers. They have some things they want to say to you,” Blaine informed her. He led her down the hall to the classroom the Warblers were in.

Trevor stepped forward as soon as the door shut behind Blaine and Jane. “Jane, I speak on behalf of all of the Warblers,” he began.

Blaine had a different thought though and interrupted Trevor before he could continue. “Nope. Individual apologies.”

Each Warbler stood and individually apologized to Jane for their actions while she attended Dalton. As soon as they sat down, Jane smiled at each and every one of the Warblers. “Thank you. I’ll see what I can do to get the rest of them to be a little more accepting.”

Blaine sighed as Jane left the room to head back to the choir room. Merging the two glee clubs was a lot harder than he had expected.

When he and Kurt got home that afternoon, Blaine had plopped down on the couch, exhausted. He talked to Kurt about how stressful it was trying to get their glee clubs to get along. They talked about how, even though they Warblers really couldn’t continue to wear their uniforms, at least during competitions, they did have a point about uniforms. Kurt suggested that there must be some way to combine McKinley’s idea of a uniform with the Dalton Academy uniform.

“I have an idea,” Blaine exclaimed.

Kurt looked at Blaine curiously. “What?”

“Just trust me,” Blaine smiled, repeated the same words that Kurt had used with him the week prior. 

Kurt smiled and left it at that. He didn’t ask any more questions about it. He simply trusted that if Blaine needed his opinion on something or advice or anything that he would come to Kurt. 

Sometime in the middle of the night after everyone in the house had gone to bed and were asleep, Kurt awoke to find the other side of his bed not only empty, but cold, signaling to Kurt that not only was Blaine up, but he had been up for quite some time. Quietly, Kurt climbed out of bed and walked into the hallway. When he noticed that the bathroom light for the hall bathroom was off, Kurt frowned and made his way down the stairs. Over in the corner of the living room, was Blaine who had fallen asleep against his keyboard that he had brought over from his mother’s house earlier in the week. Kurt chuckled at the sight of his sleeping husband who still had earbuds in his ears from what Kurt assumed was Blaine’s way of playing music in the middle of the night without disturbing anyone. As much as Kurt didn’t want to wake up Blaine, he knew that sleeping on the keyboard like that had to be uncomfortable. It was making him uncomfortable just by thinking bout it. So, he walked over next to Blaine to shake him awake. That’s when he noticed on the small table next to the keyboard was a sketch of what appeared to be a blazer, similar to Dalton’s but different. Kurt left the sketch alone, and gently shook Blaine awake. 

“What are you doing out here?” Kurt asked once Blaine was awake. 

“I couldn’t sleep so I came out here to work on a couple of ideas,” Blaine answered.

“Like a blazer?” Kurt asked, smiling knowingly.

Blaine reached over and picked up the sketch. “Yeah. I figured we could compromise. My guys want blazers. Your group wants the classic McKinley red. I combined the ideas.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Kurt said, wrapping his arms around Blaine’s shoulders from behind. 

“Yeah. I gave my guys a lecture on compromise. Maybe the New Directions need to hear it too.”

“I think they needed my lecture on sympathy a little more, but it wouldn’t hurt.” Kurt looked at the sketch Blaine held a little more closely. “What’s with the treble clef on the pocket?”

Blaine smiled. “That’s for Finn.” He smiled at the memory that encompassed his thoughts as he looked at the treble clef. He looked up and saw Kurt looking at him curiously. “You kinda had to be there. I wanted him to still be a part of this though somehow, so I added that.”

“I think that’s the perfect compromise. I’d be honored if you let me help you make those.”

Blaine turned in Kurt’s arms so that he could see the smile Blaine held on his face. “We’ll get their measurements tomorrow.”

“So what else were you working on out here?” Kurt asked. “I noticed the earbuds, so I figured you were playing the piano.”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, smiling shyly. I was working on a song.”

“What’s it about?”

Blaine took a deep breath. “It’s about me. The past year. Us. The Warblers. It’s about overcoming something difficult and rising above it.”

“Will you play it for me?” Kurt asked as he sat down on the edge of the piano bench. 

Blaine unplugged his headphones and turned the volume down on the keyboard so that only he and Kurt could hear the music. “Of course.”

As Blaine played the opening notes of Rise, Kurt couldn’t help but wonder just how lucky he was to have Blaine in his life. He listened to the words of the song and really took them to heart, especially after hearing what those words were describing.

When Blaine finished playing, he looked over to find Kurt crying. 

“That was beautiful,” Kurt revealed before Blaine could say anything. “I loved it. I think it may be the best song I’ve ever heard.”

Blaine blushed and turned his head back down to the keys. “Thanks. I worked really hard on it. I want the Warblers and New Directions to sing it when we reveal the blazers.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Kurt told him. “But you want to know what else I think is a great idea?”

“What?” 

“Going to bed.”

Blaine laughed, but stood nonetheless, and followed Kurt back up the stairs into their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/145731152050/works-in-progress-chapter-2
> 
> Chapters are added every Friday.


	3. Working Through Fears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine goes back to the therapist for the first time since getting married.

After revealing the new blazers to the glee club, things began to settle down and the tension between the Warblers and the New Directions dissipated. It didn’t take long for the group to begin to work together as one. Because of that, they could finally begin working towards preparing for sectionals. 

It also didn’t take long for Kurt and Blaine to find an apartment that they both liked in Lima. A couple days after things chilled out among their students, Kurt and Blaine went apartment hunting and found one not too far away from McKinley. They had moved some of Blaine’s things from his mother’s house into the apartment along with some of Kurt’s things from Burt and Carole’s house. Sometime along the way it hit them that this was their first apartment together. It wasn’t Kurt’s apartment that Blaine moved into. It was their apartment from the beginning. 

They settled into their apartment quickly, and before they knew it, it was time for Blaine’s monthly appointment with his therapist, his first one since they got married. Blaine was so unsure about going to therapy that day because the last time he had spoken to his therapist, Kurt was dating someone else, Blaine had just ended his relationship with Dave, and Blaine had spit out some decision to “focus on himself” for a little while. 

“What’s up?” Kurt said, pulling Blaine out of his trance.

Blaine, realizing he had been staring into his bowl of cereal, looked up and found Kurt frowning at him concerned. “Hmm?”

“You’re looking down at your cereal like it’s the most interesting thing on the planet. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is good, but it’s not awe-inspiring. What’s going on?”

“It’s just,” Blaine said, sighing. “I have therapy today.”

“I know,” Kurt said, reaching over the table for Blaine’s hand. “It’s been on the calendar for a week and a half. It’s not like it’s your first appointment with her. What’s making you nervous?”

“I have no clue what she’s going to say about getting married.”

“Ah.”

Blaine stared down at his cereal for another minute or so. “Do I even have to go? I mean, I swear, aside from Dalton burning down, I haven’t had a bad day since the last time I saw her.”

Kurt sighed. He understood why Blaine didn’t want to go, but he needed to. Kurt knew that going to therapy was good for both of them, and surely if Blaine’s therapist was as good as Blaine had said she was, she would understand. “You need to go,” he told Blaine, taking the now empty bowl from in front of Blaine and placing it in the sink. “It’s important that you go.”

Blaine looked up at Kurt with wide, scared eyes. “She’s going to try to tell me I shouldn’t have married you.”

“No she won’t. She’ll want you to explain, but she won’t tell you that you should regret it. And if she does, we’ll find you a different therapist. But you need to go. Your health is important to me, physical and mental. So come on.” Kurt urged Blaine out of his seat and towards the door of their apartment. “Out you go. I’ll see you when you get back.”

Blaine sighed as he slipped on his shoes that were by the door. “See you,” he said, kissing Kurt goodbye before heading to his car. 

Sure enough, when Blaine walked into his therapist’s office, the first thing Dr. Webber noticed was the ring on his left hand. 

“I take it a lot has happened in the past month,” she said once Blaine got settled in his seat.

Blaine chuckled. “You could say that.” 

“Want to tell me about that ring?”

Blaine smiled brightly, which caused Dr. Webber to smile back at the young man sitting in front of her. He had been in her office many times since he was a teenager, and she had never seen him smile like that before. 

“Well,” Blaine began, “I got married.”

“Congratulations. I take it you’re enjoying married life so far?”

“Tremendously.”

“What was your wedding like?” 

Blaine was transported back in time to the barn in Indiana as he told Dr. Webber the events that took place. “It was all sort of surreal at the time. Kurt and I got back together the afternoon after our last appointment. We went to our friends’ wedding over in Indiana since they were a lesbian couple and couldn’t get married here in Ohio. Kurt and I were standing around talking while we waited tog et into place since we were both in the wedding party when one of our old teachers came up to us and told us there was some emergency with the brides. Turns out, the brides wanted us to join them in their ceremony. So we did. Kurt’s dad officiated the wedding, and it was perfect.” Blaine pulled out his cell phone and pulled up his favorite picture from the ceremony to show Dr. Webber. The picture was something one of Santana’s family members had taken and sent to her so that she could send it to “those boys who got married too.” Kurt and Blaine had just pulled back from their first kiss as husbands and were still holding onto each other smiling.

“That’s a beautiful picture,” Dr. Webber said, handing Blaine his phone. “You two look very happy.”

“We are very happy.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, why did you two go along with getting married that day?”

Blaine had thought long and hard about what exactly he wanted to tell Dr. Webber. He knew she was going to ask this, and wanted to make sure he gave her a well-thought out answer. “The simple answer is I love Kurt and he loves me and we want to spend our lives together. But I can explain more if you want me to.”

“Go ahead.”

“During the wedding, Burt, Kurt’s father, told us that love and marriage is when two people say to each other ‘I love because I love you and I know this is going to be one heck of a ride but I don’t want to do it unless I can do it with you.’ I know I can make it without Kurt. The past year has proven that to me. I don’t need Kurt by my side to survive. The simple fact is I don’t want to do it without him. I want him there with me when I go back to school. I want him there with me when I get my first role on Broadway. I want to be there with him when he graduates from NYADA. I want to be there with him when he wins his first Tony award. I want the two of us to be there together when we first get to hold our future child. And I want us together when we’re in some nursing home trying to put on some production for the other people there. I know I can make it without him, but I just don’t want to.”

“Very well spoken,” Dr. Webber said with a soft, understanding smile. “I think you’ve gained a lot of insight this past year. I know before it seemed like the world was ending without Kurt. To be able to say that you can do it without him shows me just how much progress you’ve made. I’m proud of you, Blaine.” 

Blaine looked at his therapist surprised. He hadn’t expected her to say that. “Um. Thank you.”

Dr. Webber chuckled lightly. “What did you think I was going to say?”

“That I shouldn’t have gotten married,” Blaine answered truthfully. 

“If you had left it with ‘we love each other’ or something else along those lines, I would have asked you to think through your answer more, but I wouldn’t have ever told you that. Especially since you seem so happy.”

“That’s because I am. There’s been some bumps, but I’m the happiest I’ve been in a while.”

“I can see that,” Dr. Webber said, smiling. “Now let’s talk about those bumps.”

Blaine sighed. “Well, honestly, I’m a little apprehensive about the whole thing. Not like I’m having regrets or second thoughts. More like slight trust issues.”

“For example?”

“Well, right now everything is fine. We haven’t argued. But what happens when we do? Is he going to get scared and run away again?” Dr. Webber nodded her head, but before she got a chance to speak, Blaine continued on, moving on to the next thing that had been bothering him. “Not to mention, Dalton just burned down. That place meant everything to me and now it’s gone. And Lima’s been okay, but I know I want to go back to New York, but I’m scared of everything going wrong again. All that’s just kinda messing around with my head.”

“Well, that’s completely understandable and reasonable. Have you talked with Kurt about any of those things that you’ve mentioned?”

“We’ve talked a little bit about Dalton, but not really about the other things.”

“You should really talk to him about it. Because he’s really the only person who can assure you that he won’t run again, and he’ll be going back to New York with you.”

“I will.”

They talked for a few more minutes about things, Blaine’s depression being one of the more intense topics while Provincetown was a happier topic. Soon, Blaine’s appointment was over and he made his way back to the car. As he plugged in his cell phone, he noticed a text message from Kurt asking how the appointment went. Blaine smiled at Kurt’s concern and sent him a text back saying it was good but they’d talk about it when he got home.

Blaine walked into the apartment to find popcorn, cheesecake and sandwiches ready to be devoured while they had a Disney movie marathon. 

“What’s this?” Blaine asked when Kurt came around the corner into the living room.

“Figured if your therapy appointment when anything like mine, you might want some comfort food,” Kurt answered.

“You had an appointment?”

“Yeah. Via Skype. I did tell you that I was in therapy, too, right?”

“Yeah, you did,” Blaine said as he sat down on the couch and grabbed one of the sandwiches. “I just didn’t realize you had an appointment today, too.”

Kurt chuckled as he sat down next to Blaine. “I didn’t even remember I had an appointment today. My dad called me about fine minutes after you left and said that the secretary for my therapist had left a message on their answering machine. It was one of those appointment reminders.”

“How did yours go?” Blaine asked. Kurt had implied that it hadn’t been the greatest since he had comfort food out.

“Ehh. Mine kinda ignored the fact that I was the happiest I’ve been since I started seeing him and began talking about my ‘apparent impulse control issues’ since I got married a week after getting back together. I made a whole speech about how it wasn’t so that I could get you back into my life again and how it was because I know I can live without you but I don’t want to. He ignored all of that and came up with ‘No one gets married that quick.’ It frustrated me. I’m seriously looking into finding another therapist.”

Blaine laughed loudly at what Kurt had said his speech was about. When Blaine started laughing, Kurt frowned at him. Blaine knew what Kurt must have thought and immediately put his thoughts to rest. “No, honey. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just I made the same speech to Dr. Webber. And she was pretty accepting about it.”

“Maybe I should switch to Dr. Webber then for the remainder of our time here in Lima,” Kurt said, grabbing the other sandwich off of the coffee table.

“Maybe you should,” Blaine said softly. “I’m sure she’d be glad to meet you.”

Kurt smiled. “So your appointment went well?”

“It did,” Blaine nodded. “We talked about the wedding, and then she asked me how I was doing aside from the wedding. I told her a few of the things messing with my head, and she told me to talk them over with you.”

Kurt shifted on the couch so that he could give Blaine his full attention. “Okay.”

“Well,” Blaine said as he put down his sandwich. “For starters, we talked about this fear I have of whenever we argue. I’m scared you’ll run away again, and I can’t have you doing that, Kurt. I really can’t. I’m not sure why our last break-up even happened to begin with, but we started fighting over stupid things and then you ran.”

Kurt took in a deep breath. He hadn’t even realized that that was still bothering Blaine. “I promise you now that I will never walk away like that every again. That was a stupid move on my part then, and I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. I’m not the same person I was a year ago, and neither are you. I know I had some issues that I needed to work through, and I’ve been working on all that with my therapist despite his tendencies to be a jerk. I know I have to earn that trust back, and I promise I won’t give you a reason not to trust me.”

Blaine smiled. “Thank you,” he said, reaching over for Kurt’s hand to have some kind of contact with his husband. “Another thing we talked about was Dalton. I know we talked about it some, but I have to make sure you understand why that affected me so much. Dalton saved me. It saved me when I was a kid who got beat up and it saved me at the beginning of the school year when I was trying to find myself and get back up on my feet. It saved me and now it’s gone.”

Kurt squeezed Blaine’s hand. “I understand that, Blaine. I’m upset about it, too. A lot of our firsts happened there, not to mention that it was my safe place too. But, you know what’s getting me through Dalton burning down?”

“What?”

“The building may be gone, but I still have all of those memories and those friendships. I can close my eyes and picture us meeting or you proposing on the staircase. It’s not the staircase that’s important. It’s what happened on the staircase. It’s not the senior commons, it’s what happened in the senior commons. The memories are what is important.”

Blaine tilted his head as he thought about what Kurt was saying. “I hadn’t thought of it like that before.”

Kurt smiled. “It makes the whole thing easier to cope with. Anything else?”

Blaine nodded. “What happens when we go back to New York?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re going back to NYADA. What am I supposed to do? What if everything goes wrong again?”

“Well, everything isn’t going to go wrong again because neither of us is going to let it get that bad again. If it starts to get bad again like when we were fighting all the time about ridiculous things, we’ll go to couples’ counseling or something. I’m not letting everything go haywire again. As for what you’re going to do? I’ll support you in anything. Do you want to go back to school?”

Blaine thought for a moment about what Kurt had asked. What did he want to do when they got back to New York? Did he want to go back to school? He sat there and made a mental pros and cons list about returning to school while Kurt finished eating his lunch. “Um. Yeah. I do want to go back to school.”

“Do you want to go back to NYADA or”

Before Kurt could finish his question, Blaine interrupted him sharply. “I can’t go back to NYADA.”

Kurt looked at Blaine bewildered. “What do you mean you can’t go back to NYADA?”

Blaine played with the hem of his shirt as he answered. “I failed out. Carmen Tibideaux called me into her office one day and said that they had given me all the chances they could for me to attend classes and pull my grades up, so I was cut from NYADA.”

“She said what!?” Kurt said, growing angry. “And she’s considering letting Rachel back in after everything!?” Kurt took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing. “You know you can fight that. Dr. Webber can write a letter saying that you were clinically depressed, and Carmen would let you back in.”

“Even so, I don’t want to go back to NYADA. It’s too cutthroat and stressful, plus I don’t have the best memories associated with that school.”

“Well, what about Columbia or NYU? Have you thought about going to one of those schools?”

Blaine glanced at his desk in the corner of the living room. “I might have. I might have an application to NYU sitting on my desk, but I’ve just been to afraid to apply.”

Kurt stood and walked over to Blaine’s desk. He found the NYU application and grabbed it as well as a pen before returning to his spot on the couch. “How come you’ve been afraid?”

Blaine looked down and mumbled, “What if I don’t get in? My transcript from NYADA isn’t going to be the best.”

Kurt reached out and lifted Blaine’s chin so that Blaine could look at him. “You never know if you don’t try. Why don’t you fill this out now? I’ll sit here with you and hold your hand while you do.”

Blaine reached out his left hand for Kurt to take while he grabbed the pen and application and began filling out the information. Pretty soon, the application, along with a DVD of some of Blaine’s performances, was in an envelope ready to go into the mail. Kurt and Blaine returned their attention to the day of comfort food and Disney movies and cuddled on the couch. After a little while, though, Kurt got up, saying he was going to make a quick phone call. Blaine didn’t question it, but instead sat up so Kurt could get off the couch. 

Kurt walked into his and Blaine’s bedroom and dialed Carmen Tibideaux’s office hoping she would be in. It didn’t sit right with Kurt that Blaine had gotten cut because of his depression and that Blaine’s chances at NYU were lessened because of his NYADA transcript. 

“Hello?” Kurt heard the dean answer.

“Hello Madame Tibideaux. It’s Kurt Hummel.”

“Ah. Hello, Mr. Hummel. What can I help you with?”

Kurt took a deep breath to steady himself as he got ready to talk. In all honesty, he hadn’t expected her to answer the phone, so he hadn’t really thought about what he was going to say. “We’ll, I’ve recently gotten married, and I have some questions regarding my husband’s former education at NYADA and his future endeavors.” 

“Okay, Mr. Hummel. Continue.”

“My husband is Blaine Anderson.”

“Are you aware of what happened with Mr. Anderson?”

Kurt grew frustrated at the tone of Madame Tibideaux’s attitude as she asked her question. “More than you are, as it would seem. Blaine suffered from clinical depression, which was the reason behind his downfall at NYADA. Now, he has said that even if he could, he does not want to return to NYADA, but he is interested in pursuing his degree elsewhere except he has that mark on his record.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone call, and Kurt had thought for a moment that they had been disconnected, but the Madame Tibideaux spoke again. “I see. Well, I assume he has been seeing a therapist?”

“He has.”

“If you could get his therapist to write me a letter explaining that depression was the cause behind his academic downfall, I will have his last semester here changed from failing to a hardship withdrawal, and I will send a letter of recommendation to the schools of his choosing.”

“Thank you so much,” Kurt said. What he was getting from Madame Tibideaux was better than he could have imagined. “I’ll get that letter to you right away.”

“Your welcome, Mr. Hummel. Congratulations on your nuptials. And pass my congratulations onto Mr. Anderson as well.”

“Thank you, Madame Tibideaux. I will.”

With that, Kurt hung up the phone and returned to the living room where Blaine had not moved. Once Kurt sat down, Blaine resumed his position cuddling into Kurt’s side.

“Have a nice phone call?” Blaine asked once Kurt was settled.

“Mmhmm,” Kurt answered, smiling brightly.

“What was it about?”

“You. It was to Madame Tibideaux. If you get Dr. Webber to send a letter saying that the cause of your academic downfall was clinical depression, she’ll get your transcript changed and send a letter of recommendation to NYU and any other schools if you decide to apply.”

Blaine sat up and looked at Kurt surprised. “She really said that?”

“Yep!”

“Well. Okay then,” Blaine said, relaxing once more. “I’ll call Dr. Webber after the movie ends.”

“While you do that, I think I’ll go put this envelope in the mail.” 

Kurt and Blaine smiled at each other. It seemed as if everything was beginning to fall into place. They could sit back and enjoy the rest of the holiday season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/146084176695/works-in-progress-chapter-3


	4. A Chance To Be Inspiring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmastime in Lima leads to fun with Cooper. Plus drama in the glee club gives Kurt and Blaine a chance to be an inspiration. And of course, you can't work in a school during flu season without someone catching the flu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/146430151750/works-in-progress-chapter-4

Kurt and Blaine were asleep. It was early one Saturday morning and the beginning of Christmas break for their students, so they didn’t have to get up to go work. Kurt and Blaine fully planned on sleeping in, however, their plans were short lived. Sometime around 8:30 in the morning, Kurt and Blaine were awakened by knocking on the door to their apartment.

“Ugh,” Blaine mumbled into his pillow. “You go answer it.”

Kurt rolled over, pulling the blankets with him. He was not about to get up out of his warm bed to go answer the door. “No. You go.”

Blaine shivered as Kurt pulled the blankets off of him. “Maybe if we ignore it and pretend we’re not here, whoever it is will go away.” 

For a minute, they thought whoever was at their door had gone away because the knocking the stopped. However, their peace didn’t last when whoever was at their door called through the door.

“Hey squirt! I know you’re in there!” the voice from the other side of the door shouted.

Kurt chuckled from his side of the bed. “Your brother. You go open the door.”

Blaine sighed, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He shuffled over to the door and let his brother into the apartment.

“SQUIRT!” Cooper said, hugging Blaine who was still half asleep.

Blaine glared at Cooper. “Don’t call me that. And keep it down. Some people were trying to sleep.”

“Who am I disturbing besides you? It’s not like you got married without me there. Oh wait.”

“Why are you over here at 8:30 in the morning?” Blaine asked, ignoring Cooper’s previous statements. “Couldn’t you have stayed in a hotel or at Mom’s house until a more decent hour?”

“I could have,” Cooper said with a grin. “But I didn’t want to.”

Blaine picked up one of the throw pillows from the couch and chucked it at Cooper. 

“Hey now!” Cooper said, catching the pillow. “No need to get violent. I just wanted to see if you and that husband of yours would like to accompany me for breakfast and Christmas shopping. Figured it would be easier to buy presents here than to try to fly with them from LA.” Cooper looked around his brother’s living room. “Maybe we’ll stop and grab you guys some decorations too because seriously Blainey, this apartment could use some holiday cheer.”

“Would you please just sit down?” Blaine asked, relenting to his brother’s antics. “I’ll go see if Kurt’s awake.”

Cooper plopped down onto his brother’s couch while Blaine returned to his bedroom to find Kurt dressed and making their bed. Blaine jumped in to join him, grabbing the extra pillows off the floor and arranging them.

“I heard something about breakfast,” Kurt informed Blaine. “And shopping. Figured I might as well get up.”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, walking over to his closet to grab his outfit for the day. “He wants us to go to breakfast with him and then Christmas shopping with him. And he wants to get some decorations for us. Said we needed some more holiday cheer.”

Kurt chuckled. “You get dressed. I’ll go entertain your brother. You want any coffee before we head out?”

Blaine poked his head out from around his closet door. “Yes please. You’re the best.”

“You remember that.”

Kurt laughed as he walked down the hallway and found Cooper still sitting on the couch looking around at the apartment. 

“Nice place you guys got,” Cooper said, letting Kurt know that he noticed Kurt’s presence.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good. Once you’ve had to pay rent in New York, this seemed like nothing,” Kurt said. “I’m fixing some coffee. Do you want any?”

“Sure, I’ll take some.”

“You want anything in it?”

Cooper shook his head. “Black is fine.”

Kurt left the room for a few moments and returned with the cups of coffee. He handed one over to Cooper and one of the others to Blaine when he walked into the room.

“So I figured we could go down to IHOP and take advantage of some delicious pancakes,” Cooper informed Kurt and Blaine. “And then go over to the Lima Mall and go Christmas shopping. And find you guys some Christmas decorations somewhere along the way.”

Kurt sighed. There was going to be no reasoning with Cooper about the decorations that he and Blaine had decided they wouldn’t put up that year because they’d be moving to New York over the summer. “Fine. No ornaments, though.”

Cooper frowned. “You’re putting ornaments on a tree. It’s kinda the point.”

Blaine whacked his brother with another couch pillow. “We have ornaments. They’re some of Mom’s and a lot of Kurt’s mom’s.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. So no ornaments. Now. Let’s go before IHOP gets packed.”

The group left and enjoyed breakfast at IHOP. The brothers got a chance to catch up some, and then they headed off to the mall. Cooper made Blaine and Kurt disappear while he bought their presents, but they helped him get presents for everyone else that he was buying for, which, surprisingly to Kurt, meant the Hummels too. On the way back to Kurt and Blaine’s apartment, they stopped and picked up a tree and some other decorations so that Cooper could make sure the Anderson-Hummel apartment had the right amount of Christmas cheer.

At dinner that evening, the group was sitting together along with Pam, Burt, and Carole laughing away and chatting. Burt and Carole were getting to know Cooper, who had changed a lot since Kurt had been complaining during his senior year about how Cooper treated Blaine. It was one of the most pleasant family dinners that Blaine could remember.

“Hey squirt,” Cooper said, getting Blaine to snap out of his thoughts. “how come I had to miss giving a best man speech?”

Blaine sighed, annoyed. “We’ve been through this, Coop. We didn’t even know we were getting married that day until about five minutes before we got married.”

“I wish I could have been there,” Cooper said, continuing on as if Blaine hadn’t answered him. “Oh the stories I could have told.”

“Like what?” Blaine asked, challenging his brother. “You left when I was 10.”

“Do you really want to challenge me, Blainey? Are you sure you want to do that?”

Blaine put down his fork and crossed his arms, smirking at his brother. “Yeah.”

“How about the time I found the box of condoms in your room just sitting out on your nightstand for the world to see because Kurt had been over the night before?” Cooper said, laughing as he watched Blaine and Kurt’s faces turn bright red.

“You really want to try to embarrass me?” Blaine said, recovering from his embarrassment in order to make sure he shut Cooper up. “Because last time I checked, you may have spent all of my teen years in California, but you were just down the hall from me when you were a teenager. I’m sure Mom and Dad never knew about the stack of Playboy magazines that you kept underneath your bed or the girls you snuck into the house at 2 o’clock in the morning.”

“Cooper!” Pam exclaimed, causing Cooper to turn redder than the watermelon sitting on the table.

“Does Mom know that Kurt came over every time she and Dad were out of town and spent the night?”

“Yes, actually, she did,” Blaine said, smirking.

“Boys!” Pam shouted, getting the attention of her sons. “I really don’t want to hear about your sex lives. Besides, I know more about the two of you without you two trying to one up the other. So please, if we could just get back to dinner.”

The table was silent for a moment or two while everyone went back to eating. 

“You know,” Cooper said, breaking the silence around the table, “we should throw you two a party. None of the Warblers got to go to your wedding. We could invite them. Maybe have cake. Just celebrate you two.”

Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, having a silent conversation between the two of them at the table. 

“That’s actually a good idea,” Kurt said. 

“You guys could do it at our house,” Burt spoke up. “As long as it’s just the Warblers and not every member of every show choir you two have ever been a part of.”

“Okay,” Blaine agreed. “But no best man speech.”

“AW MAN!” Cooper shouted dramatically.

The party was held just a few days later, just before Christmas. It was just the guys that Kurt and Blaine had been in the Warblers with. Cooper had gotten a cake that had said “Congrats Kurt and Blaine!” It was a good party that had made up for the lack of guests for them at their own wedding. Some of the guys had brought gift cards for different stores as wedding gifts that Kurt and Blaine could use once they moved back to New York to furnish their apartment. Others just offered their congrats and demanded they stay in touch. Cooper had tried to start a speech, but Blaine quickly cut him off and shut him up. The party wasn’t complete until someone decided that they should all sing together again, so the Warblers ended up putting on a performance for the adults. However, shortly after the performance, everyone had to go. They congratulated Kurt and Blaine one more time as they all left.

Christmas was interesting to say the least. It was held at the Anderson house. Burt and Carole joined them over there. Pam and Carole insisted that they did not need any help in the kitchen from the men, so they guys headed out to the living room to watch something on TV that they could all agree on, which was a feat within itself. 

At one point during they day, sometime between eating dinner and opening presents, Cooper pulled Blaine over to the side. Before Cooper had unexpectedly shown up at Kurt and Blaine’s apartment at 8:30 in the morning, the last time Cooper had seen Blaine was shortly after Blaine had returned to Lima. Blaine had been suffering Cooper had been extremely concerned about his brother after he saw him back then. 

“How are you doing, Blaine?” Cooper asked, being serious for once. “You seem better.”

Blaine looked up at his older brother and saw how serious he was being. “I am better. I’m much better, Coop. I’ve been in therapy. I’m on medicine. I’m a lot better.”

“Good. I was pretty worried about you there.”

“I know. A lot of people were.”

“And Kurt’s helping you, right?”

“He is. He’s encouraging and he knows when I need to just take a step back and let someone else handle things for a while. Right before Christmas Break started, I started getting overwhelmed about glee and Rachel was being overbearing without meaning to, and he told Rachel off before taking me away from McKinley for the rest of the afternoon. We went and got massages. Best day ever.”

“Well, good,” Cooper said, pulling his brother into a hug. “If you ever need to get away or anything, just give me a call. You guys could stay out in LA with me anytime. And if you ever need me, I’m just a phone call away. Remember that.”

“I will, Coop.”

Soon after Christmas, Cooper had to return to Los Angeles. It had been a good visit between the brothers, though, much better than some of the past visits. New Years came and went. Kurt and Blaine made sure they stayed up so that they could welcome in the new year with a kiss and champagne. Pretty soon, school was starting back up which meant that Kurt and Blaine had to return to work.

It took no time once school was back in session for there to be drama within the glee club. The first day back, and they hadn’t even made it to the class time allotted for glee practice before there was fighting amongst the members. 

It started with Spencer and Alistair. They had apparently been fighting for a couple of days and came into the school upset. They had cornered Kurt and Blaine during the lunch break and said, “Can we talk to you?”

“What’s going on you two?” Blaine had asked. “You guys left happy and cheesy, and you come back angry and bitter.”

Kurt and Blaine sat there and listened while Spencer and Alistair had it out once again right in front of the teachers on what happened and who was at fault.

“Sit down!” Kurt said sternly, causing the high schoolers to drop into nearby chairs. “Now no talking over each other. Alistair, you go first.”

“Simple enough,” Alistair said with an edge to his voice. “I caught him flirting with another guy on a phone call. There were hundreds of texts between him and the other guy. I told him he was cheating.”

“It’s not cheating, though,” Spencer insisted. “I wasn’t going on dates with the other guy or making out with him or sleeping with him. All I was doing was talking to him.”

Kurt and Blaine looked at each other, remembering when they had gone through a similar fight when they were in high schooler. Blaine cleared his throat, while Kurt thought of what to say.

“Look guys,” Blaine said, deciding to go first. “You guys have to talk about this. I mean sit down and have a civil conversation, not yelling at each other.”

“We went through something similar to this, ourselves,” Kurt revealed. “I was texting and flirting with another guy and Blaine found out. Accused me of cheating, but I insisted I wasn’t. Turns out, I was. Blaine’s definition of cheating was different to mine. You guys have to figure that out.”

Spencer looked at his teachers in shock. “What was your definitions?” he asked.

“I thought flirting didn’t count as cheating because I wasn’t sleeping with him,” Kurt answered.

“And I considered emotionally wanting someone else as cheating,” Blaine added. “Kurt’s right. You have to figure out what your definitions are. It’s apparent that they’re different, so work out the definition that you can have as a couple about cheating. Talk about things and work through it. It works better than screaming at each other.”

“Trust me,” Kurt said, smiling. “It works a lot better.”

With Spencer and Alistair straightened out, Kurt and Blaine had hoped that the day would run smoothly. However, they couldn’t have been more wrong. There had been a fight among the girls and some of the guys in glee club over who was going to get the solos. After a few minutes of that argument, the coaches all decided that the best way to solve that issue would be to have auditions for solos. 

The other thing that happened that day was when Rachel started pushing the club too hard. They were starting to get sloppy with their dancing or all over the place with their pitch, so Kurt told Rachel that they needed to stop for the day. Rachel had tried to insist that they could continue practicing despite how exhausted the group looked. When Kurt insisted that they stop for the day, Rachel marched out of the room.

Blaine chuckled once the door was shut behind Rachel. “Well, I guess some things never change.”

By the end of that first week back in school, the glee club had diminished to half its size due to the flu. And that also meant that half the coaches were out. Kurt had managed to catch the flu from Madison and Mason despite his efforts to not get sick. 

It started when Kurt woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and coughing uncontrollable. He had grabbed his pillow and a blanket and had gone out to the living room I hopes that he wouldn’t disturb Blaine, however, that failed.

When Blaine rolled over in the middle of the night in order to get closer to Kurt, and found Kurt missing from their bed, Blaine got up. He walked out into the living room and saw Kurt bundled up on the couch, but shivering. 

“Honey, you’re burning up!” he exclaimed when he put a hand to Kurt’s forehead. 

“I’m freezing,” Kurt mumbled before breaking out into another coughing fit.

“I think you caught the flu from the kids,” Blaine said, sitting down next to Kurt and forcing him to lay down. “I’ll call a doctor in the morning.”

“Okay,” Kurt whispered sniffily. 

If there was one thing Blaine loved to do more than performing, it was getting to take care of Kurt. He always hated when Kurt was sick, but he loved getting to take care of him. After Kurt had fallen back to sleep, Blaine carried him back to their bed. He turned off their alarm, so that they wouldn’t have to wake up early and sent a message to Mr. Schue that neither of them would be at school the next day. When they did wake up, Blaine called the doctor’s office and scheduled an appointment for Kurt early that afternoon. He made Kurt some chicken noodle soup for lunch and served it to him in bed. He drove Kurt to the doctor and then to a pharmacy where Kurt slept in the car while Blaine ran in to get Kurt’s prescription for Tamiflu filled. 

The hardest part about taking care of Kurt was making sure no one came by and disturbed Kurt, especially Rachel. Pam had offered to bring over some soup, but Blaine had told her that he had that taken care of. Carole offered to do the same. Burt volunteered to stay away, knowing how Kurt would get if Burt tried to come over while Kurt had the flu. Rachel, on the other hand, wanted to come over and play mother or nurse to Kurt and feed him insanely healthy vegan meals while all Kurt wanted to do was sleep, eat chicken noodle soup, and cuddle with Blaine. Blaine had told her that he had it covered numerous times, but still had to make sure it was clear to Rachel that she was banned from the apartment while Kurt had the flu. She eventually relented, which Blaine was glad for. It meant that he could go cuddle his sick husband and watch a movie marathon in his bedroom without fear of being disturbed. It was just another day of married life for Kurt and Blaine, and flu or no flu, they were loving it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/146430151750/works-in-progress-chapter-4


	5. Returning to the Crossroads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fears are addressed, solos are given out, and Blaine receives a letter he's been waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/146776087235/works-in-progress-chapter-5

It didn’t take long before Kurt was back to teaching the glee club after the whole flu debacle. About a week after the ordeal, he and Blaine were back to driving to McKinley together to work and then driving back home, usually stopping by Burt and Carole’s house or Pam’s house, or sometimes even Breadstixs, just to spend time together and with family. It was during their time together that Kurt noticed Blaine becoming more withdrawn and quiet, like he was scared or like something was bothering him. 

One night, Kurt woke up and found Blaine sitting up in bed wide awake. Instead of ignoring it and just going back to sleep, Kurt decided to finally figure out what was going on with Blaine. He had tried to give Blaine the space he needed to work out whatever it was going on his head, but it became apparent to Kurt that he needed to step in and help his husband through whatever he was going through.

“Babe? What’s up?” Kurt asked, moving to sit up next to Blaine.

Blaine blinked in Kurt’s direction, startled at the fact that Kurt was awake. “It’s nothing. Sorry if I woke you up.”

Kurt reached for Blaine’s hand and squeezed it. “It’s not nothing. What’s wrong?”

Blaine took in a shaky breath. It’s not that he didn’t trust Kurt, but opening this up to him meant fully trusting Kurt, and Blaine was scared to fully trust anyone. However, Blaine knew that he needed to do this to prove to himself that he could trust people again. “I’m scared,” he whispered. 

“What’s scaring you?”

“It’s stupid.”

“I doubt that. Just tell me.”

“Going back to New York. I’m terrified. What are we going to do for jobs? I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to work at the Spotlight Diner, but we have to do something because we’re going to have to pay rent. I haven’t heard back from NYU yet and it’s been over a month. I guess I’m just not good enough for NYU. I thought I could move past what happened at NYADA. I thought I would get a recommendation from NYADA, but I guess they just forgot about me. Which leads me to another thing. I was diagnosed with depression, Kurt. I’m going to have to find a new therapist. You’ve had some problems with your therapist in New York, so I don’t want to go to him. So who am I going to go see? Are they nice? Will they actually try to help me? And what if we go back to New York and everything just falls apart again?”

Kurt stayed silent throughout Blaine’s rant. He knew how important it was to just listen to Blaine and not judge him at all for any of his fears. He knew Blaine needed to get that out and needed to trust Kurt to not laugh or interrupt. When Blaine finished his rant and Kurt saw the tears forming in Blaine’s eyes, Kurt let go of Blaine’s hand and leaned forward, embracing Blaine tightly, whispering reassurances in Blaine’s ear while Blaine cried into Kurt’s shoulder.

“That’s not going to happen,” Kurt said, pulling back from the hug just enough so that he could see Blaine’s face. “It’s not going to all fall apart again because I’m not going to let it. You have to trust me on this one. I’m not running again, and I’m not going to let you run again either. If we argue, we work it out. If one of us does something the other doesn’t like, we talk about it. We aren’t having another fall out. I promise.”

“Okay,” Blaine forced himself to say. His voice was strained from crying and he looked like he was on the verge of crying some more, but he continued to look Kurt in the eyes as he spoke.

“As for your therapist, we’ll find you one that works for you. We can ask Dr. Webber if she has any recommendations and we’ll start there. If you don’t like one or if you don’t like their approach or anything like that, we’ll find you a new one. We’ll keep trying until we find one for you. And until then, you could probably Skype with Dr. Webber if you need to. Okay?”

Blaine nodded his head. “Okay.”

Kurt smiled. “Now. During the past month, major holidays happened that closed down the admissions office at NYU. No one who applied between Thanksgiving and now knows whether or not they got it. That does not mean you are not good enough. You are good enough. You are better than good enough. I’m still pissed at Carmen for kicking you out when you were clinically depressed. She shouldn’t have done that because she lost one of the greatest performers to walk through the halls at NYADA.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“No, I’m not. Who got a standing ovation every night for West Side Story?”

“Rachel.”

“No. You did. Who got to do a showcase with June Dolloway where he received another standing ovation?”

Blaine smiled and looked down. “Me.”

“Yes, you. Blaine Devon Anderson-Hummel. You are good enough.”

“But what if I don’t get in?” Blaine asked shyly.

“Then we’ll figure something else out. We’ll figure it out together. Regardless, we’re going to go back to New York this summer. We’re going to find an apartment together. It’ll be our apartment. Not mine that you move into. Our apartment. We’ll find jobs, hopefully close to home. We’ll go to school, work, on dates. We’ll take on New York together this time.”

Blaine smiled at Kurt. Kurt seemed to have a way of putting Blaine’s fears to rest just by simply talking to him. “So what happens next?”

“We graduate from school. We become successful Broadway performers, maybe win some awards. We become dads,” Kurt could have gone on and on, but Blaine interrupted him.

“You still want kids?”

“With you, of course! I can see it now. A little girl with black, curly hair meeting her baby brother who has bluish green eyes. I think the names we came up with in high school could use a little work, but of course I still want kids with you. When we’re successful and financially stable.”

Blaine smiled brightly at Kurt. “I can’t wait.”

“I can’t wait, either,” Kurt said, chuckling. “But are you okay now?”

“Yeah. Thanks for that.”

“It wasn’t a problem. That’s what I’m here for. If you’re scared about something, tell me and we’ll work through it together. You don’t have to do this alone. You think you can get some sleep now?”

Blaine smiled and moved to lay back down. Kurt did the same. “Good night,” Blaine whispered and he finally drifted off to sleep.

“Good night,” Kurt said as he watched Blaine drift off. “Get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow should be exciting. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Blaine mumbled in return.

The next morning proved to be a busy day for Kurt and Blaine. That morning, they found themselves in the office just off of the choir room, picking out their competition songs for sectionals so that they could be prepared for the auditions for solos later that day. They were going to let the students pick the songs, but with all of the drama taking over the glee club, the adults all decided that it was best if they picked the songs instead. Blaine was seated in a chair near the door while Mr. Schue, Rachel, and Kurt all went at it over what songs they were going to pick.

“Guys!” Blaine shouted, getting his colleagues’ attentions. “I hate to say this, but you guys are just as bad as the kids when it comes to this. Now, if I may make a suggestion.”

“Go right ahead, Blaine,” Mr. Schue said.

Blaine stood and walked over to the desk to look at the different sheet music that they had scattered over it. He picked up one of the sheets and smiled, knowing exactly who picked out this particular piece. “We all know what the judges are looking for, and it’s not My Favorite Things.”

Kurt gave Blaine an offended look. “But the Sound of Music is classic!”

“Exactly. It’s classic. The judges want something else. Speaking of something else,” Blaine said as he picked up another piece of sheet music, “Journey, Mr. Schue? Look, you can only do Don’t Stop Believing so many times until you become predictable. And Rachel? No on I’m The Greatest Star.” When Rachel moved to stomp out of the room, Blaine caught her and stopped her. “You’re not going to just march out of here just because you didn’t get your way.”

Rachel huffed and sat down in Blaine’s previously occupied seat.

Blaine looked through the remaining sheet music and picked up three different pages. “Now these three just might do. They’re popular, but not something Vocal Adrenaline would do, so we’d stand out without going crazy.”

Kurt took the music from Blaine and looked at the three songs that Blaine had picked. “These are perfect, hon.”

“I think we have our songs then,” Mr. Schue said.

“Wait. What’d you pick?” Rachel asked from the chair near the door.

Kurt waved her over to the desk. “Come over here and look.”

During the glee practice that was held mid-day, they held auditions for solos. Most of the New Directions tried out, but only one of the Warblers tried out, shocking Blaine. He had hoped that more of the Warblers would have tried out for solos. Blaine knew that he was going to have to have another talk with them later. After everyone had tried out, Mr. Schue told the students that they’d have their decision by the afterschool practice. 

For the rest of the afternoon, Kurt, Blaine, Rachel, and Mr. Schue all discussed who would get what solos. 

“I think it would have been better if solos had always been given out this way,” Blaine said after all decisions had been made. “It would have been more fair to the other talented kids in the group because they would have gotten a little bit of the spotlight, too.”

“Yeah,” Kurt agreed. “I like the way we’re doing it.”

“I probably would have won anyway,” Rachel argued.

“Maybe,” Kurt said. “But maybe Quinn or Tina or Mercedes could have had some time to shine as well.”

Just then, the final bell of the day rang, and the glee club members all filed into the room, some nervous about whether or not they got a solo. They sat in their seats anxiously as they waited for all of the club members to arrive. Once they were there, Kurt did not hesitate in getting the practice started.

“Okay,” Kurt began, getting the kids’ attention. “All of you who auditioned today did a fantastic job. We discussed who was going to sing what for the better part of the afternoon. So, without any further ado, we are going to announce the solos. For Take Me to Church, the solos go to Roderick, Kitty, Jane, and Skylar. For Chandelier, we have Madison, Jane, and Kitty. And last but not least, we have Kitty, Madison, Mason, and Spencer. If you guys would all go see Mr. Schue and Rachel, they have your arrangements for your solos.”

“Kurt,” Blaine said, as the soloists moved over to Rachel and Mr. Schue, “I’d like to say something to the remaining Warblers.”

“Go right ahead.”

Blaine turned to face the guys who had been his students the entire school year. “Look guys. I know it was different at Dalton. But here, you have to fight for your chance in the spotlight. I was disappointed in you because only Skylar auditioned. I hope more of you audition for Regionals. Anyway, let’s get started.”

An hour or so later, Kurt and Blaine were finally heading home after a long day at McKinley.

“I cannot believe Skylar was the only one to try out,” Blaine said exasperatedly.

Kurt chuckled. “I seem to remember another Warbler who took some time to adjust to McKinley. And it was his choice then. These guys didn’t really have a choice. Cut them some slack.”

“Yeah, okay,” Blaine agreed. “Why is Rachel suddenly back like she was in high school? She’d toned down the diva for a little while there, but now it’s back in full force?”

“I think she’s just working on getting her self confidence back up in her own bizarre way.”

“You guys have been fighting a lot lately.”

“We work better when we’re arguing. Sometimes she just needs to be reminded that she’s not queen of McKinley. Thanks for stopping one of her marching out of the room moments. I’m not really sure what’s gotten into her lately, but maybe that’ll help settle her down. Wanna check the mail while we’re up here?” Kurt asked as he pulled into their apartment complex.

“Sure,” Blaine asked. 

Kurt pulled into a parking space just next to the mailboxes. Blaine jumped out and ran up to the many mailboxes, unlocked theirs, and pulled out a small stack of envelopes. He jumped back into the car, and the couple finished the short drive to their apartment. 

Once inside, Blaine flipped through the different envelopes that he had pulled out of the mailbox. One of them caught his attention and made his heart start pounding. “Kurt,” he said with a shaky voice. “It’s here.”

Kurt turned to face Blaine and saw the thick, white envelope in Blaine’s hands. “NYU?”

“Uh huh.” Blaine stared at the paper in his hands in shock. “I can’t do this.”

Kurt walked over to Blaine and calmly took the envelope from Blaine’s hands. He tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter. He took a deep breath and unfolded the letter, knowing that he was possibly holding his husband’s future education in his hands. He read the letter from start to finish, smiling as he continued reading. Kurt looked up to find Blaine standing by the kitchen counter, eyes squeezed shut so that he wouldn’t see Kurt’s reaction to the letter. 

“Blaine?” Kurt said after taking a moment to settle his excitement.

Blaine opened his eyes and watched Kurt expectantly. “What does it say?”

Kurt returned his eyes to the paper he was holding in his hands and began to read. “Mr. Anderson-Hummel, we at NYU are pleased to congratulate you on your acceptance to NYU beginning Summer 2015.”

“Acceptance?” Blaine said stunned. “I got in?”

Kurt nodded, letting his excitement finally bubble over. “You got in!”

After attacking Blaine in a huge hug that was accompanied with a passionate kiss, the couple danced around their apartment, both extremely excited that Blaine had gotten in to NYU. They had known that no matter what that letter said that they were going back to New York, but knowing that Blaine was going to go to NYU starting that summer made it so much easier for them to return.

Once the excitement had toned down, Kurt decided to ask about Blaine’s choice to return in the summer instead of the fall. “So why are you going back in the summer?”

Blaine smiled sadly at Kurt. “You know I fell behind at NYADA, and now I’m like three semesters behind where I’m supposed to be? I just wanted to start during the second half of the summer to do some catching up. Maybe fix that semester that I was enrolled in NYADA but not attending classes.”

“Well, that makes complete sense,” Kurt said, smiling at Blaine. “I am so proud of you. I hope you know that.”

Blaine blushed and looked down. “You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not just saying that. I really mean it. You made it through some really tough things in your life and you have never let it bring you down. I’m proud of you for that. I’m so proud to call you my husband and I love you so so so much.”

Blaine smiled up at Kurt. “I love you too. And don’t think I’m not proud of you either Mr. Third Year NYADA Student.”

Kurt laughed. “So who do you want to tell first?”

“Let’s tell Mom. And then your parents.”

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/146776087235/works-in-progress-chapter-5


	6. The First Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not always perfect, but at the end of the day, what matters is love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147117821480/works-in-progress-chapter-6

Blaine met up with his mother the next day for lunch at Breadstix. After getting his acceptance letter, he knew the first person he wanted to tell after Kurt was his mother, but he didn’t want to tell her over the phone so he called her and asked to see if they could go out to lunch. Pam had immediately agreed, and so it was set that he and his mother would get to catch up some more and get to hang out some at Breadstix.

Blaine arrived first and got a table near the window so that he could see when his mother arrived. He stood up as she entered the restaurant to greet her with a hug. He hadn’t gotten to see her much since he and Kurt arrived home from their honeymoon between moving and working and Kurt getting the flu. To be honest, he had only seen her once since Christmas. She had been tied up in her divorce becoming finalized and he had been taking care of Kurt while he had the flu. 

“Hey Mom!” Blaine said happily as he hugged his mother for the first time in weeks. Sometimes it just felt good to be nearly squeezed to death by your mother. 

“Hey Blainey,” Pam said smiling brightly. “Everything going okay at McKinley?”

Blaine chuckled. “It’s going as good as it can. I’m not sure who was more dramatic though. My group when I was in New Directions or the group we have now.”

Pam laughed. “That depends. Is there more drama with the students or with the adults?”

“That is a good question. And I don’t have the answer.”

The server came around to take their drink orders, and Blaine and Pam decided to go ahead and place their lunch orders as well. 

“So,” Blaine said as the server walked away, “how are you?”

“I’m great!” Pam answered.

“I mean since the divorce was finalized. I don’t want the answer you give everyone else. I’m your son. I want the real answer.”

Pam sighed. “I’m okay. I really am. I get to keep the house and most of the furniture, and your dad’s paying me a nice sum in alimony.”

“You and Dad were married a long time.”

“Yeah, but things haven’t been good between us for a while. We stayed together because of you and Cooper, but with both of you out of the house now, it seemed logical. It’s not your fault and don’t use us as the picture of a happy marriage. If you need an example, look at Burt and Carole, not me and your dad.”

“Okay. If you’re sure you’re okay, then I’ll leave it alone.”

“I’m fine, Blaine. I promise. How’s married life treating you?” Pam asked, smiling.

Blaine smiled and blushed. “It’s great. It’s really great.”

Pam laughed as she watched her son turn a bright shade of red. “That’s good. I always knew it was going to be you and Kurt.”

Blaine gave his mother a confused look. “What? Even when I was dating Dave?”

“I’ve known since my sixteen-year-old came bouncing into the house after school one day telling me all about this boy he was going to sing a duet with and how that boy was his boyfriend and how happy he was,” Pam said, chuckling. “Sure, you two made some mistakes along the way, and you learned from them and found yourselves along the way. But I always knew that somehow you and Kurt would find your way back to each other.”

“We’re not perfect, but I think that was the problem before. We were trying to be the perfect couple and we couldn’t be. Now, it’s a lot better. And I just feel at home with him.”

“That’s the way it’s supposed to feel, Blaine. What’s next for you two?”

“Well,” Blaine said smiling. “That’s actually why I wanted to meet with you today. Kurt and I are going back to New York this summer. Kurt’s still a student at NYADA, so he needs to get back this summer. And, I got into NYU.”

Pam’s jaw dropped. “You did? I’m so proud of you,” she said, bouncing up and down in her seat. “I didn’t even know you applied!”

“Yeah, Kurt and I kept it a secret because I didn’t want everyone to make a big deal out of it if I didn’t get in. But I got my acceptance letter yesterday. I start in the middle of summer.”

“I’m so happy for you, Blainey!” 

Blaine just smiled. “So, after Kurt and I get home, we’re going to start looking for apartments between NYU and NYADA. For just us. We’re not going to room with the New Directions again. It’s going to be me and Kurt.”

“That’s great, Blaine!” Pam said. “I’m so proud of you, Blaine. For everything. You showed everyone who tried to tear you down that they were wrong. You kept pushing through. You never gave up. I’ll be honest. You scared me when you came home last year. You weren’t yourself. And I’m so proud to see how far you’ve come from then. Now, look at you. Married and going back to New York with your husband.”

Blaine teared up at his mother’s words. He knew how hard he had worked to get to where he was, and it felt good to hear someone say how proud they were of him for getting through everything. 

Blaine enjoyed the rest of his lunch with his mother, and soon arrived home to find Kurt already on the computer looking through websites of apartments for rent between NYU and NYADA. 

“It’s a good thing we have that savings account started up because I don’t know how we could afford any of these if we hadn’t started that savings account,” Kurt said as Blaine pulled up a chair beside him.

“Not too many low budget apartments where we want to live?” Blaine asked, joining Kurt in looking at the computer screen.

“I’ve only come across a couple that are even worth living in. But if we narrow down the search so more, I’m sure that we’ll find some more.”

“Okay,” Blaine said, thinking about what he wanted in an apartment. “No more lofts. I want a bedroom door and walls. You know, that way if anyone wants to come visit us, they don’t walk in on us having sex. Again.”

Kurt shuddered at the memory of the last time Sam walked in on them at the loft. “I doubt that’ll happen again since no one else will have a key, but I can agree to bedroom walls and a door. Plus, you never know when we’ll have a guest staying the night or something. Like my dad.”

“Speaking of guests, should we have two bedrooms? A master bedroom for us and then a guest room for whenever your dad or my mom or one of our friends wants to come visit.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. So, we want a two-bedroom apartment, not a loft between NYU and NYADA.”

“Sounds good to me,” Blaine said, as he watched Kurt type in the specifications. 

For the next several hours, Kurt and Blaine went through page after page of apartments for rent trying to narrow down what they wanted. Some of the apartments were on the upper end of their budget, and, while it was still within budget, they wanted to avoid going up that high if they could. Some of them were “fixer-uppers,” which they both knew meant torn up and not worth it. They did manage to find five apartments that were comfortably within budget, looked nice in the pictures they found online, and between their schools.

“I think one of these is our apartment, Blaine,” Kurt said as he saved the links to all of the apartments so that he could get a hold of the realtor at a more decent hour. 

“We’re getting our own apartment in New York that we got to decide on together.”

“I’d say this calls for celebration. How about a date night?” Kurt asked.

“I really don’t want to go out tonight,” Blaine admitted. “Since I went out with my mom earlier.” 

“We can stay in if you really want.”

“You sure you don’t mind?” Blaine asked, unsure. He really couldn’t explain why he didn’t want to go out, he just didn’t.”

“No, I don’t mind at all,” Kurt answered. He really didn’t. He was content to stay in with Blaine. True, he had thought that it maybe they could go celebrate getting their own apartment in New York, but if Blaine wanted to stay in, Kurt was okay with that. 

At least he was okay with it the first few times. However, it started to seem like every time that Kurt suggested going out for a date, whether it was to the movies, or to dinner, or something else that he and Blaine might enjoy doing together, Blaine kept turning him down, saying he’d rather stay in. A couple times, Kurt decided that he’d go out and do something with Rachel or with his dad. He didn’t think anything of it at first, but after four or five times in a row of Blaine turning down going out on a date, Kurt started to feel as if something wasn’t quite right. 

“Blaine, can we talk?” Kurt asked as he walked back into their apartment after an afternoon of helping his dad out in the garage for a little extra cash. 

Blaine was lounging on their couch watching Netflix when Kurt arrived home. He sat up and paused the show he was watching. “Sure. What’s up?”

Kurt sat down on the couch next to Blaine. “What’s going on? I just want to spend more time with my husband, but lately it seems like he doesn’t want to go on dates or anything.”

Blaine immediately went into self-preservation mode despite Kurt not being confrontational. He drew his legs up and curled around himself. “Well, you’re always going off and doing something else. That makes me feel like you don’t want me around.”

“That’s not true. I always try to go out with you first,” Kurt pointed out. “It’s when you turn me down that I make plans to do something else.”

“We haven’t spent an evening together in days.”

“And that’s not my fault. I try asking you if you want to go out. You always say no. So I ASK you if you mind if I go spend some time with Rachel or my dad, and you say that you don’t mind. If you mind, why have you always said for me to go?”

“Because you were going to go anyway,” Blaine argued.

Kurt grew frustrated. “No, I wouldn’t have! If you had just told me that you wanted me to stay here with you, I would have! I wouldn’t have gone out with Rachel or my dad. I would have stayed here with you because I love you. Why can’t you see that?”

Blaine huffed. “Well, maybe if I didn’t have depression, everything would just be okay, but it’s not! I have days where I just want to stay in with my husband in our apartment, but I don’t want to feel like a burden because he wants to go out with his friends. I don’t blame you for not wanting to spend time with me. I wouldn’t even want to spend time with me. Who wants to spend time with someone who just wants to sit around the apartment? Maybe you should get a new husband who isn’t messed up like I am.”

Kurt remained quiet knowing that Blaine needed to say what he was saying. After Blaine’s initial outburst about his depression, Kurt felt his heart drop. He knew Blaine struggled, but he didn’t know the extent of it because Blaine only shared so much with him, and it was usually stuff that had already happened. By the end of Blaine’s outburst, when Blaine talked about how he was messed up and how Kurt should find a new husband who wasn’t, Kurt was in tears. He couldn’t believe that the man that he loved so much couldn’t see how much he was loved and how great he was. 

“Don’t talk about my husband like that!” Kurt said through his tears, causing Blaine to snap his head in Kurt’s direction. “You aren’t messed up. I don’t know what possessed you to think something like that, but you are far from messed up. You are the most handsome, generous, kind person I have ever met. You love so freely, and you mean the world to me.”

Blaine was in tears now too. He curled around himself even more and sobbed into his sweatshirt sleeve. 

Kurt’s heart clinched at the sight of Blaine breaking down. He scooted over on the couch so that he was close enough to Blaine to wrap an arm around him. “You have depression. That doesn’t equal messed up. And you will never be a burden to me. If you don’t feel like going out, but you still want to spend the evening with me, just tell me. How long have you been feeling like this?”

Blaine sniffled and raised his head from his arms. “A couple weeks.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Kurt asked as he reached behind Blaine for the box of tissues sitting on the end table. He handed the box over to Blaine after grabbing a couple tissues for himself. 

Blaine pulled a couple tissues out of the box before putting the box back down on the end table. “Because I felt like if I told you, you’d just spend all your time worried about me and that I’d just be a burden to you, dragging you down.”

“Would it have helped if I had stayed here some of those times I went out with Rachel or my dad?”

“It might have.”

“How was I supposed to know though, if you didn’t tell me? I can’t read your mind, Blaine. You have to tell me you’re feeling down again or that you want me to stay here with you. We can’t just not communicate with each other. That’s how we failed in the past and I swear I’m not letting us fail like that again.”

Blaine’s tears slowed down as Kurt talked. “Okay,” he said, sniffling.

“What do we need to do to help you?” Kurt asked, grabbing one of Blaine’s hands and grasping it tightly within his own. “Do I need to call your therapist? Or your mom? Or do I need to go out to the store and get tubs of ice cream and a copy of the newest Disney movie?”

Blaine smiled sadly, knowing that Kurt was just trying to help, but Blaine honestly didn’t know what he needed Kurt to do at that moment. “I don’t know,” he whispered. 

“Wanna go to bed and figure it out in the morning?” Kurt asked.

“Sure.”

Kurt held out a hand for Blaine as he stood up from the couch. Blaine followed close behind Kurt down the hallway to their bedroom. They slipped into the shower together, where Kurt took the time to wash and then dry Blaine’s hair, wanting to make sure that Blaine could feel how much he loved and cared about him. He handed Blaine a pair of clean pajamas before dressing himself. Hand-in-hand, they left the bathroom and climbed into bed. Blaine wasted no time settling down on the bed and clinging to Kurt, needed the physical reassurance that Kurt was there and that he wasn’t going to go anywhere. Kurt wrapped his arms tightly around his husband, somehow also understanding that Blaine needed that contact to assure him that Kurt wasn’t leaving. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Kurt whispered into Blaine’s hair as he rubbed his hand in soothing circles on Blaine’s back. “I’m right here.”

“I know,” Blaine mumbled into Kurt’s chest. He stifled a yawn, not wanting to fall asleep just yet, but failing at staying awake. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Kurt said, hearing the tiredness in Blaine’s voice. “So much.”

Blaine closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax in his husband’s arms. “Can you sing?”

Kurt smiled down at Blaine. “Of course. Any requests?”

Blaine shook his head the slightest amount. If he hadn’t been laying on top of Kurt, Kurt wouldn’t have even known what Blaine’s answer was. Kurt thought for a moment, deciding which song he wanted to sing to Blaine in that moment. The answer was clear to him after a moment, though. As Blaine drifted off to sleep, the last thing he heard was Kurt softly singing, “No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to make you feel my love.”

Kurt didn’t know what he was going to do the next day, but he knew he had to do something. They couldn’t fight like this about going out and Blaine’s depression again. Kurt decided he’d figure it out in the morning, and soon found himself drifting off to sleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147117821480/works-in-progress-chapter-6


	7. Reassurance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you have to reassure someone that it's going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147467673775/works-in-progress-chapter-7

The next morning, after making sure that Blaine was okay and inviting Sam over so he and Blaine could catch up, Kurt made his way over to his father’s tire shop because, in Kurt’s opinion, no one gave better advice than Burt Hummel. Kurt wasn’t sure how to help Blaine and be a good support system for Blaine, and after the argument from the night prior, Kurt knew that he needed to be just that. 

“Hey kid,” Burt said, looking up from an engine of one of the cars in the shop. “What brings you here?”

Kurt smiled at his dad. “What? I can’t just come to see my awesome dad?”

“You can,” Burt said, laughing, “but usually if you just want to come see me, you come over to the house in the afternoons. You need something whenever you come to the shop. When you were a kid, it was money, but you have a real job now, so that can’t be it.”

Kurt sighed as he pulled over a stool so that he could talk to his dad while he worked. “It’s Blaine.”

“You’re not having second thoughts about this whole thing, are you? Because, Kurt, divorce is a whole lot harder than breaking up.”

Kurt was quick to assure his dad that he was not getting a divorce or having second thoughts. “No. Never. Marrying Blaine was the best decision I’ve ever made. That’s not it. No. Last night, we had a fight about spending time together. The past couple weeks, I’ve suggested date nights, and Blaine’s been turning them down. So, I’d go out with Rachel or hang out with you or something. He always said he didn’t mind that I did that. But last night he told me that he feels like I don’t want him around because we never spend any time together. Turns out, he wanted to spend those evenings in with me, but felt like I was just going to go out anyway regardless of what he said. Then, he told me that maybe I should have married someone who doesn’t have depression and isn’t messed up like he is.”

“Wow, kid. Sounds like you had a rough night.”

“I did. I love Blaine. I really do. Last night was just, rough.”

Burt lowered the hood of the car he had been working on and pulled up a stool next to Kurt. “You know, something similar happened between me and your mom once.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Burt nodded. “She had an anxiety disorder. It was back before she got pregnant with you. We were trying to get pregnant, but we had had several tests come back negative, so I decided to take her out to eat one night to try to take her mind off things, but one thing happened after another that night. We ended up leaving dinner early because your mom ended up having an anxiety attack and begged me to take her home. So, I did. The next couple weeks, she didn’t really want to leave the house. She would go to work in the morning, but come home so exhausted that she just wanted to go to bed. I asked her if I could go out, and she said that was fine. Then it wasn’t. I was about thirty minutes later than I said I would be, and with your mom’s anxiety and stress levels up after everything, I walked into the house and she was having a panic attack. Once she calmed down, we ended up fighting similar to how you and Blaine fought last night. Told me that if I hadn’t gone out, she wouldn’t have had a panic attack because I wouldn’t have been late. She also said that it was her fault we couldn’t get pregnant and that we had to leave dinner and that she never wanted to leave the house, and that I should find someone who wasn’t, and I quote, ‘so damn scared all the time.’ It was pretty rough.”

Kurt listened intently as his father told the story. “So what did you do?”

“Well, we found her a therapist that was really good for her. It helped her work through some of those daily fears. Her stress level and anxiety level went down to where she could manage it decently. A couple months later, she was pregnant with you.”

“So what do I do about what happened with Blaine? He has a therapist, and he’s on medication. And his diagnosis is depression, not anxiety.”

Burt thought for a moment as he tried to remember some of the things that Kurt’s mother’s therapist had told him when he had asked how he could help her. “First thing’s first. You have to remember that Blaine can’t really help what he’s thinking. Sure, he’s in therapy and on anti-depressants, but that’s not a fix all. He’s going to still have ups and downs, and he can’t help it any more than you guys can help being gay or you can help your OCD. Just stand by his side and make sure he knows that your there with him every step of the way. He doesn’t need you to fix him. He needs you there while he fixes himself. That might not be the best way to say it, but that’s what your mom always told me. Work on communicating with each other. Neither of you can read the other’s mind. You don’t know what he’s thinking and he doesn’t know what you’re thinking. Talk to each other. Um. And Blaine is not his depression. He has depression, but that’s not who he is. When he’s having a bad day, see what you can do to help make his bad day better. Things like that will all help him.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Kurt said, leaning over to hug Burt.

“You know I’m covered in grease, right?” Burt said, laughing.

Kurt mocked horror, and then laughed. “I dressed down to come talk to you. I knew you covered in grease was a possibility.”

“Did my advice help?” Burt asked. 

Kurt smiled at his dad. “Yeah. It did. I think I’m gonna head back home now.”

“See you around!”

Kurt left the tire shop and headed back to his and Blaine’s apartment. He arrived just as Sam was leaving, which Kurt considered perfect timing. It gave him and Blaine time alone to talk about what had happened and how they could fix things together to keep things like that from happening ever again.

“Hey,” Kurt said as he sat down on the couch next to his husband. Anyone who looked at Blaine would see a guy in his early 20s who looked like he slept in during the weekend. But Kurt could still see the after-effects of the previous night. Blaine’s eyes were still red from crying. He looked exhausted. He didn’t gel his hair. And he was dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Kurt could tell that the night before had affected Blaine, and all Kurt wanted to do was take away Blaine’s depression and keep Blaine from ever feeling like he had.

“Hey,” Blaine said, looking up from the TV. “Where’d you go?”

Kurt sighed and reached over for Blaine’s hand. “I went to see my dad at the shop. I needed some advice.”

“About?”

“You.”

Blaine tensed in a reaction to Kurt’s words. “What do you mean?”

Kurt could feel how Blaine tensed. That was the opposite reaction that Kurt wanted. “Honey, relax. Last night was rough. I can’t tell you how much it hurts for me to hear you talk about yourself like that. And I just felt so helpless. So I went to ask my dad if he had any suggestions on how I could help you.”

“And?”

“Apparently he and my mom went through something similar with her anxiety. We just have to learn how to navigate this together and communicate better. And we’ll do that.”

Blaine smiled with teary eyes at Kurt. “Thank you,” he whispered as he choked back tears. 

“I love you, Blaine. And we’ll get through this. I promise. And we’re going to start with date night. Now, do you feel like going out, or do you want to order take-out?”

Blaine wiped the tears off of his eyes and sat up straighter. “Let’s go out.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Blaine said, nodding. 

Kurt assured Blaine that he would take care of all the plans for their date night that night. Blaine ended up on the phone with his brother, so Kurt took the opportunity to make the plans then. He pulled out his laptop and looked up nicer restaurants because there was only so many times he could handle going to Breadstix. He also looked up shows at the local theatre, remembering how much Blaine enjoyed going to Rent that one time. He grabbed some tickets for a local production of Grease, called the restaurant to make reservations, and closed the laptop before Blaine could see what he had planned. 

“So what are we doing?” Blaine asked as he walked back into the room and tossed his cell phone down on the couch. 

Kurt laughed. “Nice try. You’ll find out whenever we get there.”

“Oh come on.”

“Nope. I will tell you that you need to dress nicer than a pair of jeans and a polo, but that’s all I’m revealing.”

Blaine was pleasantly surprised when he and Kurt pulled up to one of Lima’s nicer restaurants. “Usually you need reservations for this place,” he said, smiling over at Kurt.

“I know,” Kurt said, chuckling. “We have reservations.”

“But we only decided to go out today.”

“I know. When did you think I called ahead? You were on the phone with Cooper. I called and asked if they had any available reservations this evening. And they did.”

Kurt hopped out of the car and ran over to Blaine’s side in order to open the door for him. 

Blaine smiled as he got out of the car. “What’s the special occasion? You don’t normally run out and open my door.”

“What? I have to have a special occasion? Nah. I just want to be nice,” Kurt joked.

Blaine laughed along with Kurt. “Well, let’s go.”

They laughed and joked throughout dinner, which immediately relaxed Kurt. He saw a side of Blaine that he hadn’t seen in a while. This Blaine was relaxed, calm, yet energetic, and happy. The Blaine that had been hanging around lately was tired and drained. Kurt was glad to see this happier and more energetic Blaine back. 

After dinner, Kurt continued the surprises when he pulled up in front of the theatre. Blaine looked over in shock at Kurt when they had pulled into the parking lot. “We’re seeing a show?”

Kurt nodded, smiling. “Grease to be exact.”

“When did you get tickets to this?” 

“Right before I made dinner reservations. I take it you approve of this date night?”

Blaine stepped out of the car and approached the building. “Are you kidding me? This is the best date ever. Thank you!”

“Anything to see you smile like that,” Kurt said, reaching for Blaine’s hand and squeezing it. 

Date night ended spectacularly for Kurt and Blaine. The show had been amazing and they had gone back to their apartment to continue their night in their bedroom. Afterwards, Kurt and Blaine were cuddling under the covers, arms and legs entangled.

“You’re sure this is going to be different this time?” Blaine asked timidly.

Kurt pressed a kiss to the top of Blaine’s head. “I’m positive. We’ve both changed a lot as individuals this past year. We’ve both been in therapy. We’re going to work on communication. It’s going to be different and better.”

“I like the sound of that,” Blaine said with a soft smile.

“Me too. When the New Directions go to Nationals, we’re going to spend a few days looking at those apartments we picked out and finally decide on one. It’ll be our apartment. We’ll pick out colors and furniture together. We’ll learn how to give each other space without completely disconnecting from each other and we’ll always make time for each other. New York this time is going to be amazing. You want to know why?”

“Why?”

“Because any time I’ve had to survive without you, that’s exactly what I was doing. Surviving. I wasn’t living life to the fullest. When we go to New York, we’re going together. We’re living together. We’ll take it on together. We both made mistakes. But I think it’s safe to say that we’ve both learned from those mistakes.”

Blaine scoffed. “Without a doubt.”

“So that’s why I’m completely sure that when we go back to New York, it’ll be different and better. We’re different and better.”

Blaine snuggled into Kurt’s chest to where he could hear Kurt’s heartbeat. The sound slowly made Blaine become more and more drowsy until he could barely keep his eyes open. “New York’s gonna be so much fun,” he said sleepily. 

“So much fun,” Kurt answered, chuckling. “Why do you go to sleep and dream all about what we’re going to do when we go to New York? You can tell me all about it in the morning.”

“Mkay,” Blaine said, shutting his eyes and dreaming of walks in Central Park, nights out at a Broadway show, walking on the Highline, or ferry rides to the Statue of Liberty. He knew Kurt was right, New York was going to be amazing, and he couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147467673775/works-in-progress-chapter-7


	8. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt and Blaine start to make preparations to leave Lima once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147821070180/works-in-progress-chapter-8

Time flew for everyone in Lima. Before anyone knew it, Kurt and Blaine along with Rachel, Mr. Schue, and the New Directions found themselves in New York City for the National Show Choir competition. As soon as Kurt and Blaine heard that they were going to be taking the New Directions to Nationals in New York, they began to make plans to stay after the competition for a few days and look around at apartments. It was just a plus that the New Directions happened to win the competition.

Kurt and Blaine started looking at apartments two days after the competition. While in Lima, they had made appointments to tour four of their favorite apartments that they had found online. They kept an open mind and knew that even if they didn’t find their apartment while they were in New York this time, they still had time to find one before they moved back to the city. They woke up early, got a quick breakfast at their hotel’s complementary breakfast bar, and headed off to the first apartment of the day. 

They met with the property manager who took them through the apartment and showed them around. Afterwards, the property manager stepped aside to let Kurt and Blaine talk privately for a moment.

“So, what do you think?” Kurt asked quietly once the property manager was no longer within an earshot.

Blaine looked around. “It’s nice,” he answered, “but it’s a little above what we considered comfortable in price.”

“That’s what I was thinking. It’s nice, but it’s a little too much for two full-time musical theatre students.”

“Not to mention we wanted something a little closer to NYU and NYADA. This is out of the way.”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Blaine sighed. “So it’s a no on this one.”

“It’s a no,” Kurt agreed.

They politely let the property manager know that this apartment wasn’t exactly the one that they had been looking for. They left the apartment slightly discouraged, but marched on to the next apartment tour with their heads held high. 

They arrived at the second apartment of the day, and met with the property manager who gave them a tour of the apartment. They liked this apartment as well, however, like the first one, it was over their budget and out of their way. Like before, they politely declined and walked out of the apartment. 

At this point, it was lunchtime, so they traveled to one of their old favorite restaurants in the city to grab a bite to eat. They enjoyed their meal and took time reminiscing and talking. They talked about the last time they had been in New York before things went south. They talked about the apartments that they had seen and what they had liked in each. They talked about what they would do if they didn’t find their apartment that day. 

“If we don’t find an apartment today,” Kurt said after Blaine had nervously asked what they would do, “then we keep looking. We come back in a few weeks and we keep looking until we find a place.”

That had managed to alleviate Blaine’s nervousness regarding finding an apartment, and soon it was time to continue on to the next apartment tour. As they approached the neighborhood, though, they were immediately put off. It became apparent to them that this apartment was not in the best neighborhood, and with their pasts, they were already agreeing amongst themselves that this was most certainly not their apartment. They still went and looked at it out of courtesy to the property manager, but politely told him that this wasn’t it, and then made their way to their fourth and final apartment tour of the day.

The first thing that Kurt and Blaine noticed about this fourth and final apartment tour was the neighborhood the apartment was in. It seemed to be a friendly neighborhood with plenty of job opportunities for both of them. Before they even set foot inside the apartment building, they smiled at each other with the thoughts of how much they already liked this place flowing through their minds.

The property manager was a nice lady who was moving to be closer to her family. She talked about how nice the neighborhood was as she showed them both of the bedrooms in the apartment, which had been one of their preferences in an apartment, as well as the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Like in the previous apartments, they asked if she would step out of the room for a minute while they discussed their thoughts on the apartment. 

As soon as she left the room, Blaine turned to Kurt, smiling brightly. “This is it, Kurt. This is it. I just know it. I love the neighborhood. It’s right in between NYADA and NYU. We could get jobs down the road. This is our apartment.”

Kurt smiled back at Blaine. “I agree. This is our apartment. We can afford it. It’s in a nice part of town. It has everything we want. You’re right. This is our apartment.”

They called the property manager back in and let her know that they wanted the apartment. She was overly thrilled that the boys liked the place. Papers were signed, money was put down, and the keys were handed over to Kurt and Blaine. Suddenly, they boys found themselves standing in their own two-bedroom apartment in New York City, and they found themselves overwhelmed at the feeling. 

“We’re home. We’re standing in our home, Blaine,” Kurt whispered, slightly choked up.

Blaine stepped forward to embrace Kurt as his own tears threatened to escape. “I know.”

They reacquainted themselves with the city and took some time to visit some of the places in their new neighborhood over the next few days that they spent in the city. Soon, though, they found themselves on a plane returning to Ohio to finish out the school year with their students and to spend some quality time with their families before returning to New York.

They found themselves at Burt and Carole’s house with Pam also present for dinner the night that they returned to Lima. They hadn’t told their families yet that they had found an apartment in New York and had put a deposit down on the place, and decided that they wanted to do that over dinner with their families. 

They waited until halfway through the meal to mention anything about the apartment. When they were asked by parents how New York was, they talked about Nationals, and the Broadway show they had managed to score tickets for, and the trip to Central Park that they had made. They skirted around the topic of the apartment until the moment when no one was expecting it just to completely shock the parents.

“Oh, we also have an apartment,” Blaine said casually midway through the meal.

Forks dropped, well, just Pam’s fork dropped, and the room got silent. 

“What do you mean you have an apartment?” Burt asked curiously.

Kurt cleared his throat. “Well, we took that extra week in New York to look at some apartments there, and we found one that we both really liked. So, we put a deposit down and signed the paperwork.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and smiled. “This key right here,” he said, holding up one of the keys on the key ring, “is the key to our apartment in New York.”

Carole put a hand on top of Burt’s and smiled at Kurt and Blaine. “Tell us about it.”

“It’s in a really nice neighborhood just between NYADA and NYU,” Blaine explained. “It was a really good price for it. It has two bedrooms so you guys can come visit whenever.”

“Well,” Kurt interrupted, “within reason.”

Burt laughed at his son’s interruption. “Don’t worry, kid. I’m not going to randomly show up at your doorstep at some odd hour without calling first.”

“Do you have any pictures of the place?” Pam asked.

Kurt pulled out his cellphone. “I knew either you or Carole would ask.” He pulled up the photos and passed his phone over to his mother-in-law. 

“That’s a nice place,” Carole said, passing the phone back to her stepson.

“We both loved it,” Blaine said, smiling.

“Oh Dad,” Kurt said, remembering that he had wanted to ask his dad a question. “We’re going to need some help selling and storing our things.”

“Say no more,” Burt said before Kurt could even really ask his question. “I’ll be happy to help sell, store, or ship your things to New York.”

“Thanks, Burt,” Blaine said.

“No problem, Blaine. So,” Burt said, pausing. “What are your plans then? You know, for after college?”

Kurt felt Blaine’s hand intertwine with his underneath the table and smiled. “We both want to get well established in our careers and move up in the world first. We want to be able to quit our jobs and find a better apartment near good schools and stuff like that because we both want to start a family one day.”

“Grandkids?” Pam said, face lighting up.

Blaine chuckled nervously. He knew how his mother felt about grandchildren. She had been hounding Cooper for years for some. “Yeah. One day. Not anytime soon, though, Mom. Like Kurt said, we want to be financially stable and in a better neighborhood for families before that becomes an option. But you’ll be one of the first people to know when Kurt and I decide to take that step.”

“That includes you and Carole,” Kurt told his father. “But right now, we both want to finish up school and become successful first.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Burt said, ending the conversation. 

They finished out the evening talking about other things with their parents such as the New Directions and their recent nationals win, the tire shop, Cooper, and other things similar to those. They all sat down together in the Hudson-Hummel living room and watched a movie together as one combined family. However, all good things must come to and end, and soon it was time for the Anderson-Hummels to head back to their apartment for the evening to rest from their trip. 

As they were climbing into bed, Kurt noticed that Blaine had been acting just a little strange ever since the conversation about kids. “What’s going on in your head, Blaine?” Kurt asked, cuddling close to Blaine underneath the blankets.

“Just thinking,” Blaine answered softly.

“About?”

“Kids.”

Kurt smiled and relaxed. “What about kids?”

“You really still want kids?”

Kurt huffed at Blaine. “Really? We’ve had this discussion before. Of course I do.”

Blaine smiled at Kurt. “I know we’ve talked about this. I just wanted to make sure because my mom’s reaction just got me thinking about how nice it will be to have small people like us running around our house one day.”

Kurt closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like to have a mini-Blaine and mini-Kurt running around the house playing with toys. The picture he created in his mind made him smile brightly at Blaine. “I can’t wait for that one day to come.”

Blaine grinned even more at that statement. “Me either. I can’t wait to hold him or her in my arms and take them to the zoo or the aquarium or the park. I can’t wait to be a dad. Is that weird when I’m barely in my twenties?”

Kurt chuckled softly. “Not at all. I know exactly what you mean.”

“I mean I still want to be financially stable and all that. I want to move near some of the best schools in the city because I want our kids to have the best education they can have. I want all of that before we have kids. I just want that to happen sooner rather than later.”

“I understand,” Kurt said. “I completely understand.” He looked Blaine directly in the eyes as he spoke, hoping to get the message across. “I want all of that too. I want to graduate first and then have a successful Broadway career. But as soon as we’re financially stable enough to move and afford to have a baby, I want that.”

“Yeah,” Blaine said, nodding.

“What do you say we revisit this conversation and start seriously considering having a baby after you graduate from college? By then, we should be at least financially stable enough to move.”

Blaine thought about what Kurt was saying for a moment. It all made sense to him. By the time that Blaine would graduate from NYU, Kurt would have already graduated from NYADA, hopefully at the top of his class, and would have been in a few shows if everything fell into place like they wanted it to. Which means they would have a good income coming in and would be ready to move into a different neighborhood that was more geared towards families instead of young couples. “Yeah, okay. When I graduate, we’ll pick up this conversation again starting with moving. Sounds like a great plan to me.”

“Sounds like the perfect plan to me,” Kurt whispered. “But the perfect plan for right now would be to sleep.” Right after the final word left his mouth, Kurt yawned hugely, causing Blaine to chuckle lightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/147821070180/works-in-progress-chapter-8


	9. The End of a year, the Beginning of Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt and Blaine move back to New York, settle in, and celebrate their anniversary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/148172262420/works-in-progress-chapter-9

The day Kurt and Blaine took off for New York had finally arrived. Burt, Carole, and Pam had all gone down to the airport to see the boys off. Blaine was hugging his mother tightly while Kurt and Burt did the same. There was no looking back once they boarded their flight to New York. Sure, they would come back and visit, but both Kurt and Blaine knew Ohio wasn’t their home anymore. While they were excited to go back to the city and start their new life together as husbands in the city of their dreams, it was still a bittersweet moment for the boys standing in the airport in Columbus saying goodbye to their families.

“If you need anything,” Pam whispered in her son’s ear, “and I mean anything, don’t hesitate to call.”

Blaine held back tears as he assured his mother that he would. With everything that had happened between Blaine going back to Lima and his dad leaving, he hand his mother had gotten close. It wasn’t easy for him to leave her, but with her new friendship with Carole, Blaine knew that she’d be okay.

“Let me know when you guys get there and start getting settled,” Burt told Kurt as they pulled away from their embrace. “I’ll ship it out to you guys.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Kurt said, wiping a lone tear from his eye. Leaving his dad never got easier, but he knew he belonged in New York. 

“And we’ll come visit you guys as soon as you’re completely settled in,” Carole said, giving both Kurt and Blaine one last hug before playfully shoving them in the direction of their gate.

Kurt and Blaine waved goodbye one last time and then headed towards their gate. They boarded the plane back to New York. They found their seats and quickly got settled in for their flight back to New York. Kurt reached over and intertwined his fingers with Blaine’s and smiled. 

“You ready for this,” Kurt asked as the plane began heading down the runway. 

Blaine nodded. “I’ve never been more ready.”

“I take it you have no regrets then?” Kurt asked, chuckling.

Blaine squeezed Kurt’s and smiled. “Nope. No regrets. Just love.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “You and Katy Perry.”

“You still love me.”

“That I do.”

When they walked into their empty New York City apartment, Kurt and Blaine immediately felt at home. They may not have any furniture or food in the refrigerator, but the apartment was home to them already. They decided that they’d tackle furniture and food another day, and opted for getting only what they needed to survive the first night. They headed to a store that was conveniently just down the street from them and picked up an air mattress for them to sleep on that night as well as some sheets to go with it. They stopped to grab some Chinese take-out on the way back to their apartment, and soon found themselves sitting on their blow-up bed eating room temperature Chinese food and watching Netflix. Their first night in their new apartment could not have been more perfect. 

The next morning, they went out and picked out some furniture that was set to be delivered that after noon. They stopped at the grocery store to stock up their refrigerator. They even dropped off their application at a couple of the businesses in their neighborhood that were hiring. Kurt made a call to his dad to let him know to ship their things once they got home, and soon set about putting together and rearranging their new furniture. 

Their things from Ohio arrived a few days later, and Kurt and Blaine busied themselves unpacking their things and finding a place for everything. After a few days, everything was unpacked and the apartment really began to feel like Kurt and Blaine’s. There were little touches around the apartment that only their styles and personalities could bring to the apartment. 

They quickly settled into their new routines, both finding jobs rather quickly. Blaine worked at the coffee shop down the street from their apartment and Kurt worked at the diner just across the street from the coffee shop. It worked out perfectly for the boys. They could walk to work together and home from work together. They could talk about the different customers they had come in contact with throughout their shifts, how some were great or rude or extremely friendly. 

They discovered their new favorite places. They’re new favorite restaurant was the one on the corner. Their new favorite music store was just a block over. There was even a small park a couple blocks over that quickly became their new favorite picnic spot.

They took their time rediscovering the city together. Being in a new part of town, they had to find the best routes for them to get to different places. They felt almost like tourists in their own city, and to Kurt and Blaine, it was like the best feeling in the world. Before, they experienced it separately, Kurt a year before Blaine. This time, though, they found the best route to the High Line, Broadway, and other places together. 

They even took the time to really search for a new therapist for both of them. Kurt’s previous therapist wasn’t working for him anymore, and while Blaine could continue to Skype with Dr. Webber, it wasn’t an ideal situation. It didn’t take them long to find one that both of them liked, and even that became just another part of their new routine.

In July, Blaine took a few online classes to start catching back up to where he was supposed to be academically. During his time not doing classwork and not working at the coffee shop, he and Kurt still did things with each other. They still went on picnics. They visited museums and went on tours. They cooked meals together and ate take out together. They gave each other the space they needed as individuals, but at the end of the day, they were Kurt and Blaine. They were together, and that’s what mattered.

However, the end of August quickly came and it was the first day of actual classes. It was the beginning of Kurt’s last year at NYADA, and Blaine’s first day at NYU. For Kurt, the day went by easily. The classes were easy, and Kurt felt like he was in for an easy last year of school.

At one point, Carmen Tibideaux stopped Kurt in the hallway, wanting to talk to him.

“Hello Mr. Hummel,” she said as Kurt followed her into her office. “Or should I say Mr. Anderson-Hummel.”

Kurt smiled. “Hello Madame Tibideaux.”

“Congratulations on your nuptials.”

“Thank you.”

“How is Mr. Anderson doing at NYU?”

“It’s his first day, so I’m not entirely sure. He’s been nervous but from what he’s texted me so far, he seems to be okay.”

Carmen Tibideaux nodded. “It’s a shame he’s not still here with us. He was an asset.”

Kurt sighed as he controlled his anger at her statement. “With all due respect, Madame Tibideaux, you told him his time here was over.”

Carmen bowed her head. “And that was a mistake. I hope only the best for him and for you.” 

“Thank you,” Kurt said, just as his cell phone buzzed. He waited until he was outside of Carmen’s office before he looked at it and saw a text message from a nervous Blaine. Kurt didn’t really have any time to call Blaine before his next class, so instead Kurt sent of a text to an old friend to go search for Blaine and calm his nerves.

Over on NYU’s campus, Blaine was sitting in the on-campus coffee shop, sipping a drink between his first and second classes. He was uneasy and more nervous than he cared to admit. He sent off a text to Kurt, telling him that he was anxious. He had expected a call or something from Kurt, but all he got was a text saying that everything would be okay.

Five minutes later, Elliott walked into the coffee shop and approached Blaine’s table. 

“Nervous?” Elliott said, walking up on Blaine who was looking down at his phone and startling him.

Blaine jumped and looked up as Elliott took the seat across the table from Blaine. “Maybe,” he admitted.

“Kurt told me you were,” Elliott said. “Told me to come find you because a familiar face tends to help with that.”

“How’d you know I was here?”

Elliott laughed. “Because this is where all nervous freshmen and transfer students end up, including myself a few years ago. I’m surprised it’s not more packed.”

“Did Kurt tell you anything else?”

“All I got was a text saying ‘Go find Blaine and calm him down. I’ve got class.’ So I headed off towards here, thinking that this would be a good place to catch the nervous husband of one of my best friends. So let’s see your schedule.”

Blaine handed over his schedule and Elliott looked it over. He gave Blaine tips for the professors he had this semester and even gave Blaine a heads up on professors he should and shouldn’t take in the future. Blaine also handed over a campus map that he was using to find his classes and Elliot mapped out the best routes to get from place to place. 

Elliott, being a good friend, walked with Blaine to his next class. He asked Blaine about his and Kurt’s wedding and how they’ve been enjoying married life. They talked about running the Warblers and the New Directions. The conversation helped keep Blaine’s mind off of his anxiety. They soon reached Blaine’s classroom. Elliott waved him goodbye, and Blaine headed inside the classroom, claiming his seat and waiting for class to start. 

Blaine made it through the rest of the day without issue. It even turned out that he liked his classes. He made a few friends in his classes as well. The day turned out to be pretty good for Blaine. He headed back home to his and Kurt’s apartment with his head held high and feeling fairly okay.

“Blaine? Are you home?” Kurt asked as he walked inside the apartment.

“Yep!” Blaine answered. 

Kurt came around the corner and saw Blaine sitting down on the couch watching television. “How was your day?” 

Blaine smiled. “It got a lot better once you sent Elliott out to come find me.”

“I hope that was okay. I didn’t have a lot of time to call you.” Kurt took a seat down on the couch next to Blaine.

“It was fine. He gave me some tips about professors. He showed me the quickest routes to class, and even walked with me to my class after he found me. It was good to see a familiar face. It made the rest of the day go by easier.”

“Well, I’m glad. NYADA’s still just as dramatic as ever.”

Blaine snorted. “It is a drama school after all.”

“True,” Kurt laughed.

After that first day of classes, the rest of them flew by. Months passed, and while there had been small fights every so often for Kurt and Blaine, it was never as bad as it had been before. Both of them insisted that they would never let anything fester like they had before. 

Before they knew it, it was November, and their first wedding anniversary was coming up upon them. They had their anniversary planned for over a month, and when the day finally arrived, they woke up excited. 

They skipped their classes and slept in. They made sure to take off from work. It was set up to be a relaxing, great day. 

They took off to Central Park and went ice skating. The rest of the day went almost like the days right after they moved into the apartment. They went to the aquarium. They ate lunch together at a little diner. They went back to the apartment, showered together, and dressed up in nicer clothes for their evening.

They had made sure to save up money to splurge on a nice restaurant for their anniversary. They headed to the restaurant and enjoyed their meal. They were constantly smiling at each other and laughing. After they ordered, they got a call from Brittany and Santana wishing them a happy anniversary. They phone call was kept short because the food arrived and Santana didn’t want to spend her anniversary on the phone, so after exchanging “Happy Anniversary,” the phones were put away once more, and Kurt and Blaine went on enjoying their anniversary dinner without interruption. 

They headed off toward the Gershwin theatre. They had managed to snag tickets to see Wicked. They were great seats considering their college student budget, and they watched the show hand-in-hand, whispering the words to the songs along with the actors. 

“Well,” Blaine said as they were walking down the sidewalk towards their apartment, “we’ve made it one year married. It’s been one heck of a year.”

“It has been,” Kurt agreed. “It may be the end of a year, but it’s still just the beginning of forever.”

Blaine smiled. “Happy anniversary, Kurt.”

Kurt leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Blaine’s lips. He pulled away, smiling just as brightly as Blaine. “Happy anniversary, Blaine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reblog on Tumblr: http://iliketowriteaboutklaine.tumblr.com/post/148172262420/works-in-progress-chapter-9
> 
> Thanks you guys for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Chapters will be posted every Friday!


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